Danny’s 28g D&D nano reef aquarium

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.