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20L AIO Peninsula


Jeramy

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Howdy Folks

 

Figured I would start a build thread even though this tank has already been built. I originally built the Stand for this tank back in 2012 the custom stand is designed to fit a standard 20 long that I picked up from petco $1 a gallon sale. Spent easily 100hrs working away to build the stand from scratch. I added a False wall to make it and all in one with 2 rear chambers. I got the kit from a member on Nano reef but can't remember who. This tank has been set up and taken down many times in the last three years and almost sold it twice once to Noob and KKnight. However I was very glad I kept it as last spring I came home from a vacation in the woods and found that my Nuvo38 had burst a seem and drown my living room. Luckily I had this tank handy. did a quick swap to save as many things as I could. Lost a lot of corals and 1 of my 2 fish did not live very long after this incident. Then not long aftert I moved and the tank went with but did not get much love. I have now decided to clean the algea out and start a new to get this back to a thriving reef once again.

 

Equipment:

 

20 gallon long Tank

Custom built stand

10-15 pounds of reef saver rock

20 pounds agrilive sand

WP10 wave maker

Korilla 425 gph

IM first gen Skimmer

No name 106 gph return pump

Reefstar Nano alpha series LED

Finnex 50 watt heater/controller

DJ power strip

Chemi-Pure Elite

Purigen 

 

Fish:

1  Starry Blenny

 

Coral

Zoas roughly 10 varieties 

Gorilla Nipple

Candy Apple Reds

Pink Zippers

GB Shangrila

Not sure on the lineage of the rest if they even have it

Green toad stool

Kryptonite Trumpet (hanging on by a thread

Green Sinulara

Good ole fashioned GSP

 

Plan to upgrade the pumps  to 2 RW-4s and would like to maybe add 1-2 more fish. Also planning to get lots more corals of all types to fill it up as it is kinda bare right now.

 

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Edited by Jeramy
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I really dig that stand, are you going to put sides on it? And the aquascaping must have been challenging, but you did well:)

 

Are you keeping the top open? That skimmer sticking out would drive me crazy...maybe a HOB skimmer, or heck if you are just doing zoas and softies, maybe go skimmerless? I have a skimmerless nano at my office that seems quite happy(zoas and softies only).

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I have thought about and do have some screening material to make a top for and will likely do so before I add any more fish. the skimmer and pump wires and such running over the top really bothered me at first but I have gotten used to them to the point where I don't really see them any more. The stand was designed to remain open. I have contemplated adding a sump and closing it off but for now am happy as is. Th rock work was a bit of a challenge the main concern was making sure the algae scrapper had clearance all the way around the rock work. getting good flow is the true challenge.

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Gotta love old clowns! I have a pair that must be over ten years old...the male is going bald...seriously...he had some bacterial infection and it rotted his dorsal.

 

Algae scraper in the aio??? Sounds intriguing. Good idea!

Edited by Mandinga
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  • 2 weeks later...

Howdy Folks

 

 

Not much to report just keeping up with my weekly water changes and topping off the water. My algae problems have really cleared up over the past month. I wish I would have taken some before pictures to document how far gone this tank was and how much better it is now.

 

Thanks for Looking

 

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Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

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Added a few new corals to the tank. A really awesome octospawn neon green from the TPA. Also recently added a Christmas tree favia and a coral that I am sure I should know what it is but have drawn a blank.

Neon Green Octospawn this is the wall variety not branching

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Christmas tree Favia

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And the one I can't recall we will just refer to it as LPS "X"    ????Favites pentagona????

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Edited by Jeramy
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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Update things are looking great coral are growing and fish are happy. Yesterday during my weekly water change I did some extra cleaning removed the rock and stirred the sand up before syphoning out the water. When I put the rock in I changed things around and moved some things and makes the tank feel bigger gives the fish more open space to swim. I also added a rack to hold some filter floss. Got tired of all the free floating particular mater. Check it out and tell me what you think.

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Ok update time. I am a little f#@, pissed off. Last week I was doing my regular 5 gallon water change as I was pouring the water back in I sloshed the bucket and a large amount of water splashed down directly on my large octospawn colony that I was so proud of. Completely shredding the polyps. A week later all that is left is the skeleton. Very discouraged I never spend a lot on corals always buying small frags I am kind of a cheap skate in that regard this is the first time I ever spent so much on a single coral ($80)!!!!! I know a lot of you acan and stick people would scoff at that but it is more than I have spent on coral all of last year and with one slip I freaking killed it. Not very happy right now. Rant over =(

 

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known the feeling. I have managed to kill 2 different chalices, cant seem to keep one alive for any reason. I buy cheap frags too because I am still learning my tank and coral care. Im scared of spending a large amount for one frag and then do something and kill it. sorry to hear about the frag that sucks a lot.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Did some dirty work today. Was a little frustrated with the tank after loosing that frogspawn. And there were definitely some changes needed 1 was th POS skimmer I was fed up with the day to day monkeying around it took to keep it operating and was not coined it really was worth all the noise. So audios went the skimmer but that was not all I said a deep cleaning of the back filter compartments. I have been in need of devising a more effective way to filter this tank. My decision was some what controversial but in the long run I believe that it will prove to be a great success. We can follow along in my thread and see over time if it was a good move or bad.

 

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What I came up with was this I completely gutted the rear chambers of the AIO removed the return pump got rid of the skimmer (overall I would rate it as near to worthless one can get). In 0lace of the return pump I put the inlet hose of a canister filter 265gph rating more realistic I would say it is 150 -200 gph. So the water is drawn from the surface of the tank and thought the rear chambers before being pulled into the canister filter. And then I plumbed the canisters return to the original lock line used for the all in one. I placed my heater back in the rear chamber to keep it hidden from veiw. The canister filter is set up as follows water flows in swirls around a 9w UV sterilizer to the bottom of the canister were a layer of ceramic rings await as a pre filter to help break up the larger particle that enter. Then I have my mechanical filters coarse medium and fine followed by my bag of Purigen carbon and gfo. The remaining chambers are filled with seachem pond matrix to act as both aerobic and anaerobic biological filtration the water is then returned to my tank clean and ready to rock.

 

I don't plan to set and forget as most do with canister filters. I chose this one as it is easy to open and service. When I do water changes the media can easily be rinsed as well as the mech iCal cleaned with out to much fuss. Which will I believe prevent it from becoming a nitrate sink. Also the addition of bio media that has the ability to hose anaerobic bacteria I will be on a limited scale reducing nitrates as well. Only time will tell if this is a viable solution or not but I feel I have done my research well and have planned for the best.

 

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Some full tank shots. Sorry for the long winded post was as much for me to chronicles my work for later reference as it was to share with you all what I have done =)

 

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Tanks looking good! Keep us updated on how that Canister works "Controversial is a fitting description" but I have always wondered if they could be beneficial to the application if someone were to in fact religiously stay on top of cleaning them and swapping out the media. You might Also want to look into the cad-lights pls-50 I clean mine every 2 weeks and just have to monkey around with it a few times the 1st day and its all good, but I have also noticed the Nano skimmers are very temperamental to water levels so you have to have a good ATO installed. Look forward to seeing more updates :)

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  • 2 months later...

Been a while sense I have updated this. After 2 months with the canister filter with pond matrix my Nitrates are very low less than 5ppm. I did put the IM Skimmer back on I just can't bring myself to run a tank without a skimmer. Even a nano where it has little affect. How ever I do get some nasty green sludge out of it when I clenched it . I have it raised way up so it simms very dry. Also about 2 weeks ago I installed a new Halo led pendant light on my tank and the corals have responded very well especially my zoanthids. I had to dial it way back as it was to intense for my very shallow tank. I am very happy with these lights and can't wait to install them over the 75g if I ever get that finished my guess is that won't be until January of next year. Good things come to those who wait. One of the things I am most happy about is my captain America Pally that I got from noobtosalt about 4 years ago. Had browned out when I stuck it in a uncycled nuvo8 with stock lighting and a lot of the polyps died. It then has been in several different systems turd brown and about 4 polyps. Was this way for 2+ years with out change almost tossed during the last move. In the last few months it has started to gain some color again and in the last few weeks has fully colored up and exploded with growth 10+ polyps and has never looked so good. In fact all of my zoas have really started to take off in the last month =) Here are some low quality cell phone pictures.

 

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