New Nano Tank Log

[rustybee]

Hey folks. New to the forum, but not new to reef keeping.

Started more than 35 years ago as a teenager, keeping a 12G salt water tank (air stone and live rock) with a pair of percula clowns. Moved to Canada, took some time away from this hobby and eventually started a 60G in our first home. Eventually bought a 175G bowfront from upstarts JNL (Big Al was the incumbent along with King Ed’s and a shop on Kingsway... think Laurie was the shop owners name). Had the 175G set up as a reef tank, deep sand bed, 400W MH, Neptune Aqua controller, EuroReef skimmer, Calcium Reactor, no expense spared. Fast forward 15 years and 3 kids later, a much delayed home reno meant that the 175G had to be torn down (tank given away for pennies on the dollar as a terrarium) and liverock/equipment stored. Never really got the opportunity to setup another, as there just wasn’t another space in the house to setup a big tank like I wanted.

Fast forward 2021 and the itch for a reef tank beckons still. Saw a for sale ad for a nice nano tank setup that the wife approves, bought it an the journey begins again. Here is a thread to serve as a blog for this nano tank build with my 14 year old son (how life comes full circle lol).

Feb 1 2021

Fluval M40 tank and stand. Got a great deal from a local CanReefer. Came with a Tunze Silence 1073.008 recirculating pump, a 75W Eheim heater and a cheap set of no name LED lights. Upon first impression this is a well made rimless tank. Frosted edges is a nice touch. Stand is well built with enough space and shelving to do the trick. Built in sump looks good, although I think that the middle overflow box is not designed as well as it could be (all sections have top overflow). Not wanting to open a can of worms to redo the middle compartment, we decided against doing the required mod.

Off we go! Found a quiet corner in a cool part of the house (not wanting to deal with a chiller or natural sunlight from the skylights/windows). Had a new bucket of Instant Ocean leftover from the 175G days. Mixed batch of saltwater to 1.026 using an old Aquarium Pharmaceutical Inc Ion-Exchange Resin filter (mistake 1). Filled the tank to check for leaks. All clear. Fired up the re-circ pump (works!). Have a trash bin of super fine Caribbean sugar sand (wow that’s a lot a sand from the 175G lol). Did a few wash to clean up the sand. Decided against a deep sand bed on the build since it is only a 16G and space is at a premium. Just a thin 2cm sprinkle of cleaned sand for the nice “ look” (mistake 2).


Feb 2 2021

Cloudy water from adding the sand has mostly cleared out after 12hrs. Have all of my old live rocks still stored in Rona 77L garbage bins. Call me a sentiment old fool, but these were at one point premium Fiji/Tonga liverock full encrusted with coralline algae. Have 4 of these Rona bins stored in heated in the house with only air pump running, hopefully that one day I will start another tank. Picked out 2 larger pieces as the base. Aquascaping has always been one of my favourite elements in tank setup. Decided against one single structure, and went with 2 separate structures for more room to display corals. Picked a few more smaller pieces from the bucket to finish off the structure. Looks good so far even though all the coralline has died off from no light... happy but I am sure not the final layout.