Aaron's AquaNano 40

[Gobzy]

Thanks for your help Aaron, beautiful tank so far and definitely one of my inspirations.. i lke your b&w clowns, i'm pulling my hair out deciding on a pair of them or orange.. there's always the best of both worlds with one of those designer clowns which look stunning but tend to have a price to match :/

[555combo]

Got the new Reef Flare 30 from Naqua and built a hanging mount on the weekend. The corals absolutely love the new light and have opened about 30% more than they were before. Light is running at 50% on most channels for a short period at the moment to not shock anything. Will ramp that up over time.

Other than that there haven't been any major changes and water parameters have been stable, keeping up the 20l fortnightly water changes.

Stand Front:


Stand Side:


Few of the corals under the new lights.

Elegance:


Acan:


Hammers:

[MattnJayne]

What mod have you done so that the surface skims properly cause atm mine doesn't do it and I get build up on the surface of the water.

[555combo]

What mod have you done so that the surface skims properly cause atm mine doesn't do it and I get build up on the surface of the water.

Mine is made out of black acrylic and held in place with magnets.


This then goes over the front of the built in overflow and causes the water in the display to be about 2cm (or whatever you set it to) higher than the water in the back section. This means that the scum (or most of it) flows into the back section and is captured by floss/skimmer/whatever is in the back etc.

There are quite a few post on this and many other forums for it.
This one explains the basics fairly well: http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/217443-d ... e-skimmer/

[MattnJayne]

What mod have you done so that the surface skims properly cause atm mine doesn't do it and I get build up on the surface of the water.

Mine is made out of black acrylic and held in place with magnets.


This then goes over the front of the built in overflow and causes the water in the display to be about 2cm (or whatever you set it to) higher than the water in the back section. This means that the scum (or most of it) flows into the back section and is captured by floss/skimmer/whatever is in the back etc.

There are quite a few post on this and many other forums for it.
This one explains the basics fairly well: http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/217443-d ... e-skimmer/

Is it noisy at all?

will have to hunt around to get one made then as my surface is quite foul.

[555combo]

Is it noisy at all?

will have to hunt around to get one made then as my surface is quite foul.

Can't hear it at all. It's only about 100mm across, so not a huge volume of water flowing across it.

I'm sure there should be someone locally that could make it for you - if you are handy with a jigsaw and superglue you could make your own.

The surface of my tank is usually fairly clean and I certainly noticed a huge difference after I started using it.

[555combo]

Thought I would do a quick update (but apparently left it in the drafts folder) before moving the tank on the weekend, just in case everything goes to fishy heaven

Made it through Brisbane Summer without a chiller - having a new baby and using the air con most of the time ensured that the tank never even saw 28*C.

For the last 5 months all I've been doing: fortnightly 20L water changes, monthly changes of carbon and RowaPhos (or when required), cleaning the glass, feeding the fish and coral - and that's about it.

A few months ago I was having a lot of hair algae. So I took almost everything out of the back sump section, built a media rack for the middle to hold the Carbon and RowaPhos and put come Chaeto in the first section with some underwater LEDs. Result - after removing most of the nuisance algae virtually none has returned after 4 months and it looks to be working well. NO3 ~ 5ppm and PO4 0.03-0.1

Am starting to discover the biggest issue (that I have had) with a nano. Lovely small corals grow fast and then aren't so small, but still very lovely. I have a torch that I bought as one head, slightly bigger than a golf ball when out - it now has at least 4 heads and is a softball. Going to have to start fraging or trading soon. It is great to watch things grow though, says to me that I'm doing it right.

Built some egg crate frag racks to hold the small corals in preparation for the move, it's easy to get carried away when making things from egg crate - bit like a dodgy meccano!

A few pics:

Media Rack:


Frag Racks:

[555combo]

Moved on the weekend. In short, nothing died, yet, and I'm very happy with the new layout.

Only injuries were the FireFish has lost his dorsal fin:


And the Candy Cane fell into the hammers for a day or so while we were away.


Hopefully they both recover. They were both feeding well last night on frozen mysis.

The Move

Everything out of the tank into its own separate bucket.

Took it slow and careful.


Stand all neat and tidy (for the moment) with new RO tank in the bottom.


Right Side


Front.

Will do a nice FTS when every thing settles and opens nicely again.

[gnadymmij]

Tanks coming alone nicely mate. What lighting are you utilizing?

[555combo]

Tanks coming alone nicely mate. What lighting are you utilizing?

It's the ReefFlare 30 from Naqua
http://www.naqua.com.au/collections/lig ... f-flare-30

It comes with tank mounting brackets - but I thought it looked heaps better hung. Also makes it easier to get into the tank.

Still trying to work out the colour mix, it's still a bit purple, or that could just be my colour-blindness!