May 1, 2016

This tank has experienced quite a bit of an overhaul since we originally set it up in January of this year. In that time, we have added a sump and exchanged several pieces of equipment currently running on the system. This is an update on some of the successes and struggles we have experienced over the past few months.

Current Livestock:

• 2 Phantom Clownfish
• 2 Pom Pom Crabs
• 1 Hermit Crab
• 1 Nassarius Snail
• 2 Astraea Snails
• 1 Peppermint Shrimp
• 2 Acan Frags
• 1 Long Tentacle Plate Coral
• 1 Torch Coral
• 1 Hammer Coral
• Short Tentacle Plate Coral

Corals:

When beginning our endeavor into corals, we initially began with several LPS (large polyp stony) corals. We slowly began acquiring corals until we had an an acan, torch, hammer, short tentacle plate, long tentacle plate, and open brain coral. Upon experiencing success and noting that the corals looked happy and were showing signs of growth, we decided to give SPS (small polyp stony) corals a try. We decided to begin with 3 different frags of SPS.

Several new heads appeared on our acan frag.

Of the three SPS frags, two appeared to be settling in well while the third began showing signs of stress. Within a week of owning the pieces, the struggling frag began undergoing rapid tissue necrosis while we were at work. When we arrived home and checked on the tank, The struggling coral had lost a majority of its tissue and the tank nitrate parameters were out of control. We had successfully been maintaining, negligible nitrate readings (close to 0 ppm utilizing API testing kits). After arriving home to find a rapidly dying coral, the nitrates were reading 40 ppm. Ah the joys of owning a nano tank! In a larger system with greater overall water volume, the death of a frag would not have impacted the nitrate levels so dramatically. Keep in mind that there are several struggles surrounding a pico or nano tank. Before you decide to set up your own system, we recommend reviewing our article on pico & nano tanks to know what you are getting into.

SPS Coral Removed from the tank after suffering from Rapid Tissue Necrosis

With the extremely elevated nitrate levels, we had to conduct several water changes to insure that the nitrate levels had been brought down. Despite our immediate action upon recognition of an issue, several of the other corals began displaying signs of distress. This initial loss has triggered a domino effect of sorts. We ended up losing the other two SPS frags shortly following the first demise as well, who up until this point, had been displaying wonderful polyp extension and color. Their death again began to contribute to the nitrates found within the tank. The fluctuating parameters has also triggered our open brain coral to begin tissue necrosis as well. We have removed this coral from the tank and placed it in quarantine to spare ourselves any further addition to our nitrates. It is our hope that we can aid this coral in repair; however, its chances are slim to none at this point. Even though the open brain coral’s future seems bleak, we feel compelled to give it a try at rescue within quarantine.

Following this episode, we have had a difficult time in returning our nitrates back to 0 ppm. However, our current levels hover around 5 ppm or less. While not ideal, it is far better than the dramatic swings we were experiencing during periods of coral tissue death. It is our hope that with close observation of the remaining corals in conjunction with a few other elements we are adding (which we will address below) our numbers will reach ideal conditions again in the near future.  As it stands now: our tank now holds two acan frags, a torch, hammer, short tentacle plate and long tentacle plate coral.  Until our parameters have once again reached a consistent positive state, we will not be introducing any new inhabitants into the tank for a period of time.

Sump:

For a time we had a small refugium section running in our sump. It included some live rock, chaeto algae and an Eshopps Curve Refugium LED Light. The Eshopps Refugium Light did a great job growing the algae within the sump. However following the nitrate spike within our tank, we decided to scrap the idea of having a refugium section. This decision was partially derived from our planning for our future 230 gallon saltwater tank which is in production. On that build, we were discussing not including a refugium section within the sump. Additionally, the refugium produced a slight smell (simply the natural odor of the chaeto algae). Even though the odor was a natural smell and very slight, you could catch whiffs of it while standing and washing dishes at the sink since our sump is located beneath (not the most appealing of scents for a kitchen). For these reasons, we decided to remove the chaeto algae.

In order to try and emulate a setup we are considering for the large tank build, we decided to remove the live rock and instead use MarinePure High Performance Biofilter Media. The 8” x 8” x 4” (20 x 20 x 10 cm) block provides a much greater surface area for bacteria colonization than traditional live rock. Especially for anaerobic bacteria that help to convert nitrates into nitrogen gas. Since we choose to remove our live rock contained within the sump, this also means that we sacrificed a large portion of our biological filtration. We selected to address this issue with through the final major change with our system. ​

Sump with the MarinePure High Performance Biofilter Media Block.

Biological Dosing:

For a week following the removal of the live rock, we dosed daily with Seachem Stability. This assisted in establishing a bacteria within the new MarinePure block. We also decided to begin dose using Prodibio BioKit for Nano Reefs. The product contains 5 vials of each of the following:

• BioDigest Nano (nitrifying and denitrifying natural living bacteria for biological filtration)
• Bioptim Nano (carbon source and micronutrients)
• Reef Booster Nano (nutritive supplement for corals and live rocks)
  
• Coral Vits Nano (total multivitamin supplement for corals)
  
• Iodi + Nano (enhances the coloration of coral and fights bleaching)
  
• Stranti + Nano (stimulates the growth of hard corals skeletons)
  

We dose the products every 15 days. The supplements are added at night with the protein skimmer turned off. The skimmer is turned on again the following morning. To date we have only instituted 2 rounds of dosing and we are excited to watch for any results. ​

Despite some of our more recent setbacks, we are eager to see how some of the new implements we’ve added impact the entire system. As our nano tank continues to progress, we will continue to post updates here on this blog page.

Keep Krill'in!