Impressive isn't it?

It is such an honor to be featured here in this website. First of all, I would like to thank God for He is the One who provided us with all the necessary things( especially living things) in order for us to prosper in our hobby. I also would like to thank nanoreefblog.com for giving me a very rare opportunity to be able to talk about my system and to be able to discuss with other people all my success and failures in reef keeping.

Saltwater aquariums were reallysomething that I had been dreaming of since I was a kid and that dream materialized only when I started a saltwater tank around the year 2005 when I was in my first year High school. During those times, reef-keeping in the Philippines is still in its infancy when it comes to equipments and knowledge. The only available skimmers we had before were air-driven skimmers. The very first tank I had was powered by an overhead filter, a couple of liverocks, and an Orca air-driven skimmer. I frequently visit the lfs during those times in order to ask information from store owners and staffs. But it seems that even if I follow their advices I still lose a lot of fish. So I decided to go and join a local aquarium forum and where I found people who were very kind and patient in answering all my questions. After a few years, we had our very first reef-keeping club in the Philippines. Since the start of the local club which is named Reefphilippines, exchange of information and techniques were greatly improved.

After gaining enough knowledge on reef keeping, I then decided to set up a nano tank that will be a frag tank for sps. But turns didn’t came out as planned and it was converted into a sps dominated nano tank. The colors of the sps really turned out very well which is mainly due to the vodka dosing keeping my nutrients low. This success inspired me to give more time and effort on this tank. Until one day, 2 of my fans stopped working, and the water temperature peaked at around 36 degress Celsius. This bleached all of my sps and this really devastated me at first. But I decided that I would continue this tank and bring it back to its former glory. Then I worked on it slowly, I made water changes more frequently and dosed vodka consistently which I was not able to do in the former set-up. Diligence really pays off and instead of just bringing it back to its former state, which was my primary goal, it even surpassed the success that I got from the previous system. I also added another fan in the sub tank to be safe from fan failures.

Lastly, I would like to thank my fellow club members and LFS owners, without which this tank wouldn’t have been successful. Jeffrey (random), a member of our reef club who inspired me to make my tank a success, Peter (Aquariatech) and Paul (PETSNEEDS), who were the ones who supplied most, if not all, of my aquarium equipments and needs, Boch (Marine quest) who supplied me with Kent products, Eddie (Tropical Brew) who gave me a chance to sharpen the my reef keeping skills, Randell, Wiley, and Edwin(Marinehub) for making high end products available to every reefkeeper in the Philippines, Mike Beltran , the founder of our local reef club, without which reef keeping in the Philippines wouldn’t experience such tremendous advancement, my family who always supported me in this endeavor, and all the other people that I haven’t mentioned but has taken part in the success of this tank. I also believe that everyone who would want to make his/her tank beautiful would be able to do so with adequate patience. And once again, I would like to say thank you for this wonderful opportunity and for reading about my tank. Happy reef keeping!

• Tank size: 24”x12”x8” (9.9 gallons) and it is made of 3/16 glass, it is currently around 7 months old
• Filtration: 10 gallon sump with 3 chambers, one for mechanical and chemical filtration. 2nd chamber is for chemical pads, and 3rd chamber is for the skimmer pump and return pump.
• Media: GAC, PhosZorb, , Phosphate and nitrate pads, Ceramic rings
• Additives: Kent liquid reactor, Kent tech-M, Kent strontium and molybdenum, Kent Chromamax, Sera Coraliquid, Coral Frenzy, Vodka
• Skimmer: Macroaqua protien skimmer rated for 150g

Target feed with coral frenzy, chromamax and coraliquid every other day. Liquid reactor around 20 drops a day. Tech M is used when needed, Strontium and molybdenum 5ml per week and 8ml of vodka daily (4ml in the morning and 4ml in the evening. This high dosage of vodka is mainly due to my habit of target feeding corals often.

Got to love the open top view of this nano reef

• Lighting: 150w g12 metal halide 20,000k 6-8 hours per day
• Waterflow: Seio m620, Resun waver-2000 (Total turn over rate of 145x per hour)
• Cooling: 3x 220v fans
• DIY gravity driven auto top off
• Water change 25%-50% once a week

Is that an encrusting montipora sp. in the back there?

Left hand view of this 9.9g reef

One for the LPS lovers out there

Corals

• Rose Acropora millepora
• Green Acropora millepora
• Pink Lemonade acropora
• Blue Stylopora
• Blue Distichopora
• Blue Green Acropora humilis
• Bright green Acropora granulosa
• Yellow green millepora
• Purple Turbinaria
• Purple Acanlord
• Scolymia cubensis
• Bowerbanki acan
• Tricolor Aussie acan
• Inferno Aussie acan
• Joker palythoas
• Green star polyps
• Yellow polyped/ green montipora
• Violet haze montipora
• Pink elkhorn
• Pink pocillopora
• Green pocillopora
• Pink birdsnest
• Green birdsnest
• Green acropora
• Yellow tubeworm
• Coco Worm
• Orange plate corals
• Red cyarina
• Scolymia cubensis
• Yellow closed brain
• Green and red fusion open brain

Inverts

• Nassarius snails
• Porcelain crab
• 2x Blood shrimp

Fish

• none

A beautiful photo to wrap things up

You can find Justin on Reefphilippines.com, Pinoyreefers.org, Mypalhs.com, Nano-reef.com and Reefcenral.com as seriousreefer91

(All photos © Justin Parco)

Related posts:

1. Robert Gallinoto’s Minimalist Oceanic BC29
2. The aquarium that spawned the SPS coral nano reef generation
3. Danny’s 28g D&D nano reef aquarium

What makes this system so important?

First, notice the time stamp on the photo. Yes, says 2003 – making this photo of the grown out SPS packed nano reef 7 years old now. When this tank was first setup it was done at a time where ‘big’ tank ideas weren’t applied to the smaller boxes of water.

After a lot of talking to people with nano’s and without I decided that why can’t we use the big tank philosophy ie: aggressive skimming, MH’s, Ca Rx’s, lots of flow (closed loop pumps, wavemakers), etc on a little tank with success? Well turns out you could  It was weird at first to talk to some of the big boys about putting a Ca Rx and MH’s on a 20H but it kept the system more stable.
- Luncbucket on ReefCentral.com

Here is an overview of the system and equipment used:

• 20g Reef Ready tank
• 10g sump fitted with Kent float switch
• Mag 950 return pump
• Closed loop system with SCWD unit powered by Mag 700 pump (35 times turn over)
• Euro-Reef ES5-2 protein skimmer
• 400w Metal halide lamp using a 20k XM bulb plus 9w and 13w actinic lamps for dawn/dusk effect.
• Custom dual chamber MRC calcium reactor
• 100w Ebo Jager heater
• 1/10 HP chiller by Pacific Coast

Even by today’s standard’s it is a very impressive list of gear to run a nano – many would say it’s complete overkill. Either way, it allowed Eric to conquer the SPS nano niche back then.

I always dreamed of an SPS dominate tank and I wanted SPS in a nano….but more nano lighting isn’t appropriate for SPS…thus I started experimenting w/ MH’s, current, skimmers, ca reactors…it just got crazy.
- Luncbucket on nano-reef.com

It’s not just about the equipment

As you know, it’s not just about what equipment you have running that makes your reef a success, it comes down to your own skills, passion and patience. Eric only performed monthly water changes on this system along with the usual routine maintenance we’re all used to doing on our tanks.

• Homemade food fed once a day
• Fill a the top off resevoir daily
• Clean the glass every two to three days
• Clean skimmer cup roughly twice a week
• Check alkalinity about once a week

Moral of the story? Keep it simple.

Watching a tank grow up

Here are a few photos documenting the growth of this amazing SPS nano tank. (Keep an eye on the montipora sp. on the left hand side…)

Getting started

Notice the increase in coraline algae and size of frags

System at 6 months

This nanoreef really starts to come into it's own

Growth and colour. Beautiful.

Lunchbucket's SPS nanoreef in all it's glory before being moved over to a 58g tank

A very big thank you to Eric for pushing the level of nano reef hobby to new heights.
As far as I know Eric is no longer in this hobby but I’m sure what ever he is doing now, he’s breaking new ground on that too.

Credits:
All photos in this article are by Eric “Lunchbucket” Peterson.
This system was featured on nano-reef.com in February 2004 – head over there for more photos and system details.
Information for this post was found on reefcentral.com and nano-reef.com

Inspired?

What do you think of this SPS nano? Do you consider it an important system in the development of modern nano reefing?
What are some of your all time favourite systems? Let’s hear it in the comments.

Related posts:

1. Chalice Corals – The Nano Reef Aquarium Coral Collection (part 1)
2. Danny’s 28g D&D nano reef aquarium
3. Reef Aquarium Aquascape Inspiration from the Maldives

Danny is a nano reefer based in Brentfod, West London, UK. And in this post, we feature his very first aquarium, although he did run a 24g very briefly before upgrading to the 28g. Yes, the man has never owned any previous tanks nor has he any prior experience. This is the story behind his 28g D&D nano reef. (Photos can be found at the bottom of this post)

For a long time, I used to stare longingly at a display tank in the window of an LFS I regularly drove by. In May of 2008, I finally walked in. A week later, I ended up with a 24 gallon tank, a box of very expensive boulders and a few canisters of salty water. I foolishly thought at the time that it would be easier to manage a smaller volume of water. Unfortunately, this journey started out off the back of some very rash and impulsive decisions so the tank as it stands today is an evolution of those initial decisions. None of what is seen today was intentionally planned out from the start.

What size is your nanoreef and how old is it? What make/model is it? Has it been modified?

The initial 24 gallon tank lasted 3 months before I realised that I needed a better lighting system. At that point, I had a couple of clown fish and a few soft corals in the tank so there was not too much in it to make an upgrade sound too daunting.

Because of physical space constraints, I had to stick with a nano. My current tank is a 28G D&D Nano. The tank was running in its stock standard form (mostly) up till about a month back. Now the tank has 2 x 18W actinic retrofitted and both the return pumps have been upgraded to Maxijet 1200s.

This tank has been running for around 15 months.

Tell us about the filtration you run on this tank. What type of skimmer etc

As far filtration goes, I do weekly water changes of about 25 litres, have live rock, a Deltec MCE 300 skimmer running 24/7 and some filter floss in the overflow and the skimmer return.

What lighting do you use? Wattage? Spectrum?

The tank runs the standard 150W HQI MH 14k bulb. As mentioned previously, this has been recently supplemented with 2 x 18W actinics. The actinics run for 8 hours and the halides for 6. I also have a GHL profilux dimmable LED but that’s really more for aesthetics than serving any real purpose.

What other gear do you run?

The tank currently runs with the following equipment:

• Tunze 6025 Nanostream
• Koralia Nano
• 2 x Maxijet 1200 for the returns
• Tunze Osmolator 3155 ATO (The ATO was purchased way before the computer or I would’ve used the computer to manage the top offs)
• A GHL Profilux 3 (Recently upgraded!) with 2 power bars
• Azoo Twin Cooling Fan
• 150W Heater
• Deltec MCE 300 skimmer

The 2 powerheads in the tank are connected to the wave maker so it alternates along with the returns. All lights on the system are controlled by the profilux but the most important function it provides is as a trip switch for the halides for when the temperature gets too warm in the summer as I don’t run a chiller.

For maintenance, I perform weekly water changes of about 25 litres. I rarely check for ammonia and nitrate these days but I do weekly checks for nitrates, phosphates, calcium, magnesium and KH. I try to go by the behavior of the corals in the tank as an indicator that something is awry as much as I can.

Until recently, I never used to dose anything in the tank, preferring rather to stick with regular water changes. The problem with being in this hobby and interacting with other individuals with the same interest, is that you start getting introduced to a plethora of new opinions and ideas. Dosing is one of those dangerous areas you can find yourself sucked into.

My dosing regime is currently as follows:

• 2ml of Vodka a day
• A drop of Zeobak twice a week
• 1.5ml of Coral Snow 3 times a week to polish the water column
• Calcium and Magnesium as required
• I am currently trialling the Tropic Marin K and A elements (as it was recommended by aquarists much more experienced than myself) but I’m not convinced they do anything just yet

Tell us about your corals.

I have the following corals:

• Pink rimmed Montipora Capriconus.
• Orange Montipora Digitata
• Purple and Green Encrusting Moni
• 4 Acros (Yellow, Dark Green, Blue and Purple)
• 2 Pocilloporas (Yellow and Orange)
• Blue polyped Stylopora
• Orange Fungia
• Green Goniopora
• Red Goniopora
• Porites rock with lots of christmas tree worms
• Numerous Ricordea Floridas
• Mushrooms of various colours
• Green and Cyan Caulastreas
• Various zoanthids
• White tipped Sarcophyton
• 4 Euphyllias (2 x hammers, 1 x frogspawn, 1 x torch)
• White Tubiporas
• Various Acans
• A red and green Blasto that’s hanging on for dear life after being loved to death by a clown
• Pulsing Xenias

And fish?

There are no fish at the moment. Had a bad breakout of white spot about a month back so they have all been re-homed to the LFS copper tanks. The tank will stay fishless for another 2 months. There is a maxima clam, a cleaner shrimp, 2 peppermint shrimp, a few snails and 4 hermit crabs in there at the moment.

Tell us about the tank overall, what do you love about it, what problems have you had, any plans for the future?

What I love most about the tank now is the sense of accomplishment I feel when I look into it.  It’s very nice to watch life thrive and be able to provide well for it. I remember saying to myself when I started that all I wanted was a pair of clown fish and a couple of soft corals. I never expected to get as far as I have.
I’ve had problems aplenty. Most notably:

• Battles with the evil Pistol Shrimp
• Battles with evil Red Eyed Crabs
• The never ending plague of Aiptasia
• Red Macro Algae
• White Spot.  Corals are dead easy to keep.  Fish and me just don’t seem to get along.

Biggest lessons learned:

• Corals grow fast when conditions are good.  Over crowding becomes a very big problem in a small volume of water very quickly.  My montipora digitata grows like a weed and needs to be pruned every few weeks.
• Pistol Shrimp/Goby pairs are only good when they stay as posts on internet forums.  When your tank is in pieces at 3 in the morning because you’ve had to rip everything apart to get the little bugger out you quickly realise this.  One might work in a bigger tank but where space is a premium, the constant burrowing and digging will quickly bury and kill your prized corals.
• Aggressive fish do not belong in a nano reef, even though books may say otherwise.  Just because a fish can stand up for itself doesn’t mean that it should be made to.  It’s like locking someone up in a cage with an axe murderer.  It is cruel and unnecessary.
• Forums present too many conflicting ideas and house the biggest egos and opinions.  There are a set of generally accepted rules to this hobby.  The rest is common sense.  I feel that every tank operates in a very different way and that you have to find your own point of equilibirum where everything just works.  Some things work for some people and others don’t.  We can do everything exactly the same and yet the net result can be a very different.  I think it is important to think things through, not to do things on an impulse and stay sensible if we feel the need to tinker. There are no absolute right or wrong way of doing things.

I think the biggest problem with the tank right now is the lack of planning from the get go.  I guess it’s hard to have a goal in mind when you do not know what you can or cannot accomplish at the start.

I would ideally like a 4×2x2 for my next tank that is primarily SPS focused with a few LPS for a bit of movement.  I think fake rock would provide a much better platform for aquascaping so I would move all the live rock into the sump with a couple of good power heads for circulation.  It would also be nice to pay more attention to colours and detail instead of randomly sticking pieces wherever there’s available room.  Unfortunately it means I will need more floorspace than I currently have so I can’t see it happening anytime soon.

Do you belong to a reef club?  Which online forums do you use (what’s your username). What books do you read/recommend for reef knowledge?

I belong to Ultimate Reef and Nano Reef forums as the user ‘gruffy’ but I rarely ever post.  As for books, it would be Eric Borneman’s book on Coral Husbandary, Scott Michael’s book on Reef Aquarium Fish and the 3 volumes of the Reef Aquarium by Delbeek and Sprung. (Ed note: Please see this post on reef aquarium books for more info).

Anybody you want to thank?  Anything else you’d like to say bout your tank.

I guess I’d like to thank my other half for putting up with this silly fish tank obsession, battles with evil crabs and shrimp that carry on into the dead of morning, camping out at the LFS on the weekends and the never ending chore of water changes!
Learn to scuba dive!  Being able to keep a box of water alive is no comparison to the real thing.  You will never truly appreciate this hobby until you are out there seeing what it is we are trying to accomplish in person.

And now for the eye candy. Enjoy.

Feel free to ask your questions in the comments below, I’m sure Danny will be more than happy to answer.

All photos in this post are by Danny.

Related posts:

1. The aquarium that spawned the SPS coral nano reef generation
2. 5 reasons why nano reef aquariums are cool
3. Robert Gallinoto’s Minimalist Oceanic BC29

This is what Fluval have to say about the Edge series:

FLUVAL EDGE :: 6 Gallons/23 Liters

The Fluval Edge aquarium has been designed for today’s lifestyle with a contoured casing module and a six-sided glass tank. Whether in an ultra modern or more traditional setting this versatile aquarium adds the ‘designer’ look to almost any room in the home.

Here are a few of these Edge tanks running as reefs (click the images to get more info). Enjoy.

Minh Tran

JennyBugs

Roy Bingham

www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrQjwwbexfA

pimp4cheddar

djustice

johnc43113

Seen any great Fluval Edge nanoreef’s? Get in touch and let us know.

No related posts.

During a recent search for minimalist type aquascapes, I came across the superb 29 gallon nano reef of Robert Gallinoto. I quickly tracked Robert down as I had to learn more about this nano reef. Below Robert gives us some more information on his Oceanic BC29. More photos after the Q&A section.

Name, where are you from, hobby experience etc

Robert Gallinoto, West Hartford, CT, and have been in the hobby since 2001.

What size is your nanoreef and how old is it? What make/model is it?

BC29 by Oceanic is 2 years old.

Tell us about the filtration you run on this tank. What type of skimmer etc

Only filtration is an small Oceanic airstone skimmer. No carbon, phosphate media used.

What lighting do you use? Wattage? Spectrum? How long do your lights run for?

Nanotuners 150w HQI retrofit into hood for stock look. Bulb is 20K Current USA. Lights on at 3 pm, off at 10pm. A Current USA 1/15 chiller is used when the tank temp hits 81 (summer), by rarely turns on because of central air conditioning. I am looking to convert to all LED in the near future.

What other equipment do you run? Calcium reactor, aquarium computer, dosing pumps, auottop off etc

No other equipment. To maintain calcium and alkalinity I dose one teaspoon on Tropic Marin BioCalcium daily.

Tell us about your corals. What have you got an how many corals do you have?

I designed the aquascape with simplicity in mind. One large piece of live rock was used. There are no dead spots for algae to grow uncontrollably. Small frags (1-1 1/2″) frags were glued to the live rock allowing plenty of space for growth. Corals include ORA Montipora spongodes, ORA Roscoe’s Acro, unknown teal stag, red chalice, pink stylophora, a few different ricordea morphs, purple/teal favia, and assorted zoanthids.

What about fish?

A pair of brood stock ORA clowns, and Pajama Cardinal.

Tell us about the tank overall, what do you love about it, what problems have you had, modifications made etc

Very few problems with the tank thus far (knock on wood). I lost one coral, an ORA Oregon tort. I just got around to replacing it with the small pink stylo. The fans have died in the hood rendering the HQI useless (retro designed that way), otherwise no problems.

Do you belong to a reef club? Which online forums do you use, (what is your username)? What books do you read for reef knowledge?

I am a CTARS member (Connecticut Area Reef Society). I am know as my2girls on Reefcentral, Zeovit.com, and Nano-reef.com

Anybody you want to thank? Anything else you’d like to say about your tank?

I’d like to thank my wife for her understanding, CTARS members, and my LFS the Puppy Center and Aquarium.

All photos by Robert Gallinoto

Related posts:

1. NanoReefBlog.com goes live
2. Robert van Tilburg’s Floating Coralscape 50g Reef at four months
3. Justin Parco’s 9.9g SPS dominated nanoreef