20 Gal Nano Reef Build thread!

[ryanb69]

Since my last post I have done some minor upgrades as well as got 2 new corals! I purchased an awesome 6 headed red/green acan colony for $45, and a orange/green ricordia frag for $15, both from bayside corals. Both corals are looking awesome and eating lots. I officially started spot feeding my candy cane and acan mysis, and they love it. My upgrades are I changed my 100watt heater to a 150watt as my 100 was almost constantly running (in a cold basement). I also added another Hydor 425gph power head, doubling my flow to 850gph (water turned over 42.5 times/hour). Everything loves the new flow! Pictures to follow soon!

[ryanb69]

Here are some pictures of the new corals and a full tank shot. I have started to get my stuff together for my tank move from Saskatoon to Muenster (125km). I am plumbing in the RO into my parents house today, and i plan on moving in 2 to 3 weeks!



acans at night



tank shot (new powerhead in the upper right side of tank)

[ryanb69]

candycane ant night



ricordia florida



another acan shot

[ryanb69]

In approximately one week I will be doing a tank move (approximatly 150 km). I will be taking lots of pics, it shouldn't be too challenging as its only an hour drive, but I'm sure it will be exciting/frustrating at the same time lol

[ryanb69]

finally got a good shot of my Acan! (iphone pic)

[ryanb69]

Well yesterday was the tank move! It was a great success, everything is in the tank in the new house looking good.

I bought 5 pails/lids from home depot for my Live rock, and I used a cooler for the livestock. I rinsed out the cooler before well with water and vinegar, then rinsed it multiple times with ro water. I siphoned tank water into the cooler and put all the coral in there. Then I Started siphoning the water into the pails and placing the Live rock in. After I had all the Live rock out of the tank i could catch the fish, and they went into the cooler. I kept 3 inches of water over my sand in the tank, and I started moving it all into the van.


























The van was super packed, because nothing could move around if the van needed to stop in a hurry. I wrapped the tank in towels to try to add some cushioning around it.



My friend drove the van for me, so i could keep a close watch on the temperature on the cooler, and the one pail that has an xenia attached to the live rock. I had a heater in the cooler and the xenia pail, and I had a lighter plug in with a plug-in adapter. We turned up the van's temperature, making it uncomfortable for us, but the pails all stayed at a cozy 77.9 degrees.









Once at the new house I found the tanks new location, set up/leveled the stand, added the pails of water with live rock, then heated both tank and cooler to 78.5 degrees, and added the fish. today , the tank is looking clear, and everything is open! Overall, huge success!

[ryanb69]

Its been awhile since my last update, but the tank is looking good. I have a new fish, an orchid dottyback, who is absolutely unreal. Great personality and no aggression at all between my fish!

I purchased a beautiful Favia from Bayside Corals, as well as got an order from fragalot.ca with my brother, which went awesome, but the corals are still in his tank in Calgary.

I fragged my Xenia yesterday because it was growing like.....well like an Xenia

I also did an outside of tank Hydrogen Peroxide dip of some of my Live rock and zooanthids, which had some hair algae that was bothering me.

I will be adding a DI unite to my RO later on this summer, along with replacing my RO membrane, so the dip was only to make it look pretty untill then.

I also made a DIY fuge out of a HOB fish filter for freshwater fish, but i am waiting for the light I purchesed off Ebay to come in the mail!

I believe thats all for now!

New fish! (orchid dottyback)



coral feeding




new favia!



light for fuge



fragging xenia
(mother colony)






peroxide dip