Aaron's AquaNano 40

[gnadymmij]

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!

Oh from Peter.. Yeah it looked very farmiliar that's why, how's it running over your tank?

I gotta admit. It is very purple.. Maybe tune down the purples more and it'd look more natural

[555combo]

Oh from Peter.. Yeah it looked very farmiliar that's why, how's it running over your tank?

I gotta admit. It is very purple.. Maybe tune down the purples more and it'd look more natural

That's the one. Looks great over the tank.

Have only recently put it up to full strength white and blue. Have only ever run the Red/Cyan at about 40% max and the Violet at up to 70%.

Turned down the Red/Cyan channel last night to about 30% and it took a lot of the purple out, maybe a bit more to go down yet, but I think some blue & violet will have to go as well to even it out - will just have to keep fine tuning it.

It looks better in person now, the pic doesn't really do it justice.


Should really get the DSLR out soon and take some 'nice' pictures, rather than the phone pics.

[mason91]

Fantastic result thus far, I had one of these up and running for about 12 months.
I found without a sump it was too time consuming to maintain properly, especially with a hectic schedule.

Will do a custom tank sometime in the future

[555combo]

Fantastic result thus far, I had one of these up and running for about 12 months.
I found without a sump it was too time consuming to maintain properly, especially with a hectic schedule.

Will do a custom tank sometime in the future

Thanks Mason, yours was one of the many tanks that I 'researched' to get the ideas and inspiration that I am using now.

It is a bit hectic at times. I have found so far that 20-25L fortnightly changes and running RowaPhos seem to be keeping things in check. I'm sure the Macro helps too.

I've been having issues with the stock 'return' pump since the move, so will be installing a Eheim Compact 1000 this weekend.

I would love to do a custom tank. Maybe when life settles down and I'm not moving ever again.

[mason91]

Fantastic result thus far, I had one of these up and running for about 12 months.
I found without a sump it was too time consuming to maintain properly, especially with a hectic schedule.

Will do a custom tank sometime in the future

Thanks Mason, yours was one of the many tanks that I 'researched' to get the ideas and inspiration that I am using now.

It is a bit hectic at times. I have found so far that 20-25L fortnightly changes and running RowaPhos seem to be keeping things in check. I'm sure the Macro helps too.

I've been having issues with the stock 'return' pump since the move, so will be installing a Eheim Compact 1000 this weekend.

I would love to do a custom tank. Maybe when life settles down and I'm not moving ever again.

Glad to hear my experiences were of some use
My biggest issue with the tank was no sump and thus no decent room for skimmer, better macro etc. but I learnt a lot so I spose that's something

[555combo]

Thought I would celebrate the belated 1st birthday of the tank with a few small upgrades. It's been a good 12 months, no major crashes, no fish loss and very minimal invert and coral losses. So in celebration I installed the upgraded return pump, installed a new heater and rearranged the 'sump'.

After 12 months of skimerless, I decided to install the Tunze 9002 that I had, and it instantly (well almost) made a huge difference. It may be all in my head, but the tank looks clearer and everything looks happier. Was getting quite dark skimate for the first little white but after the skimmer fully broke in I managed to dial it in to be a bit wetter.


Installing a skimmer meant that I had to move the macro. I thought I would experiment with a HOB refugium. I got a small HOB breeder box and pump water through it with the Cheato in there. It's not huge, but the macro grows enough to need to be trimmed each fortnight or so. It is also great fun to see all the little pods swimming around in there. My theory is if the macro is growing it is working and I'll keep with it to see what happens.


I rebuilt my DIY ATO to make it more modular and make it easier to replace an individual faulty component.


And finally I got a few new pieces of SPS to give a try and see how it goes.


A few pictures of the birthday tank.
Newest Inhabitant:


My hammers kept falling over so i attached them all to a flat piece of rock. The clowns love it when they are fully out and will often disappear into them:


FTS:

Sorry for the quality of the pictures - all phone pics. Will break out the good camera at some point and get some good pics.

[Sookie]

I love your setup! I'm hoping to have my own one day!

[mason91]

How are the upgrades coming along, should have settled quite nicely now I should imagine?

[555combo]

How are the upgrades coming along, should have settled quite nicely now I should imagine?

You would think that, but there have been a few issues. I am really starting to see the whole - "bigger volume = more leeway for bad stuff" idea. I had a massive algal bloom, hair algae, cyano, generally a bit nasty. It's easy to see why people give up after a while.





So lots of water changes, a revised lighting time schedule, lots of GFO and the algae is almost gone. Lost a couple of SPS frags as they were overrun with hair algae, and have lost a few hammer frags, I think, due to the clowns being rough. With all the die off, PO4 has been a up and down at times, but luckily more down than up. Everything else seems to be stable and kept in check with WC.

The skimmer is going well, the HOB refugium was a good idea but kept holding too much detritus and I am fairly sure this was causing more issues than fixing. So slowly, slowly gone back to a more simple design. Back sump is now just skimmer, heater, GFO and carbon in bags and return. Everything that could catch detritus has been removed.

Have also upgraded the Tunze 60145 for a Jaebo WP10. Gives a bit more water movement and a better motion look to the tank.

My pride and joy at the moment is the only piece of SPS that survived. A nice little pocci frag that I have had for about 9 months and looks to be growing nicely.


Will take some after algae pics tomorrow when I do WC and maintenance.

Going to give it a little bit to fully stabilize and then look at trying SPS again.

Slowly Slowly

[MattnJayne]

Yeah I feel your pain with this tank.

Nitrates and PO4 are hard to control even with WC, hence why mine will be shut down in 2 weeks and my new 2ft cube with sump etc will be set up...

was great to learn off but time to go bigger... well as big as the boss would let me..