# 20 Gallon Nano SPS Reef Tank



## Vinoy Thomas (Jan 4, 2013)

Hi everyone,

Haven't really talked about my tank on here, other than asking for help every now and then!

This is actually my second build thread (for this tank). The other one was kinda left alone by me because I wasn't really spending a lot of time on the hobby. However, now that I've moved to my new house, I have set the tank in a somewhat stable location. So now I can spend more time enjoying the tank rather than working on it.

Some preliminaries.

I started this tank in September of 2014. It has been running since then, however between that September and this, the tank was not maintained well and was really left on its own. Despite my lack of care, the tank did reasonably well meaning that nothing died (out of the very little livestock that I had) and I only had to deal with a major bacteria outbreak.

Now that the outbreak has been dealt with (knock on wood), I can focus my energy on adding corals and maximizing my system's effectiveness.

My vision for this tank is to be filled with mainly SPS corals and anything that is colour really. Since, i have very little room to work with, I want every coral to be one that I love.

Now for some system details:

*Tank/Stand
*
20 Gallon rimless from Miracles 
IKEA stand
*Filtration*
15 gallon sump (3 chambers)
IceCap K2-50 Skimmer
Filter sock
2 Two Little Fishes Phosban rectors (GFO & carbon)
Coralife TurboTwist 18w UV sterilizer
25lbs+ of live rock
15lbs sand
*Lighting* 
6x24W ATI Sunpower T5HO Lighting
Led strip light w/ remote (Sump lighting)
*Flow*
1 Vortech MP10
Jebao DC 3000 return pump
*Heater*
Eheim Jager 150w heater
*Controller/Probes*
ReefKeepr Elite w/ ORP, PH, and temp

*Livestock*
- 2 Purple Firefish
- 1 Blacker Ice Clownfish
- 1 Red Velvet Fairy Wrasse
- 1 Blood Red Shrimp

And what good is a build thread without pics!

*Latest (October 10th, 2016)*



I wanna thank all the kind reefers and hobbyists who have offered their support to make this tank!

Thanks for reading!,
Vinoy

Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk


----------



## duckhams (Oct 13, 2009)

Wow, that's a big turn around! Great job, im glad you stuck with it! It looks like the hard part is over.
On your return lines/plumbing, and im sure it wont be a problem as there is very low pressure going through the hoses, if you dip the end of the hose in hot water from the kettle, they'll slip all the way up the fitting. You just need to run them under some cold water after and It'll hold nice and tight, no need for the steel clamps then (which will eventually rust). Again, probably not something worry about, just a thought.


----------



## Vinoy Thomas (Jan 4, 2013)

*Timeline*:

*September, 2014*



















Moved sump to bottom shelf and added gfo + carbon.





*Early 2015
*





*Bacteria outbreak (chrysophytes)*





*Early September, 2015*





*Sump setup pre-skimmer*



*October, 2015*

*Sump overhaul*





*Crappy FTS*





*
DSLR PICS COMING SOON*



duckhams said:


> Wow, that's a big turn around! Great job, im glad you stuck with it! It looks like the hard part is over.
> On your return lines/plumbing, and im sure it wont be a problem as there is very low pressure going through the hoses, if you dip the end of the hose in hot water from the kettle, they'll slip all the way up the fitting. You just need to run them under some cold water after and It'll hold nice and tight, no need for the steel clamps then (which will eventually rust). Again, probably not something worry about, just a thought.


Yea I didn't lose hope! Lol, it just needed some more attention.

I don't think I'll be able to remove the plumbing to do the dip, mostly because it'll be too much work! Thanks for the tip though!

Right now I'm waiting to grab my clownfish pair from thao. Can't wait!

Also, I need to stop by Canada corals and get some acrylic rods to redo my aqua scape. I don't really gave place for my corals as it stands now.

QUESTION: when I remove the rocks to drill and put the rods in. Will this affect the organisms inside, I'll have them out for less than a minute, just so that I can drill. How can I approach redoing my aqua scape without affecting my parameters?

Thanks!,
Vinoy

Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk


----------



## duckhams (Oct 13, 2009)

We have a couple different sizes of acrylic rod if you need some quick https://www.bigreefdepot.com/Aquarium-Salt-Sand-and-Rocks-s/125.htm.

Drilling the rock (wet rock) will create a milky calcium carbonate that will create a big cloud in the tank, so give them a good rinse before putting them back in to rinse all that away. It will affect the micro-organisms inside the rock, but only in the area you drill and not enough to really impact the tank as far as denitrification goes, so dont worry about it. You'll be fine.


----------



## Vinoy Thomas (Jan 4, 2013)

I would've got the rods from your store, however I managed to grab something similar to this:

https://www.lowes.ca/driveway-reflectors/the-hillman-group-48-in-red-driveway-marker_g1195605.html

I cut off the reflector and used the rod, which was actually perfect for holding up the rocks.

The water is still milky and the rocks are not in there final position, but I thought I'd just put out an update.










Also, does anyone know a good store to get a clean up crew? Not BigAls! In the peel region.

Gotta put my frags on the rocks now!


----------



## Vinoy Thomas (Jan 4, 2013)

*Update*

Been a while since I updated this.

A lot of stuff happened over the year for my tank lol, it's been through a lot.

I'll see if I can list the events in chronological order 

So a few months after my last update, I decided to restart my tank. I just got fed up battling byropsis, hair algae, vermetid snails, worms, and whole bunch of other pests. I was careless when bringing corals and fish from other peoples/stores tanks, I never quarantined anything or dipped my corals. I paid the price for that hard.

*Tank before restart*

*April 1st, 2016*









I honestly liked how the tank looked, but I just was so annoyed by the algae and the snails who were housing themselves in my monti's so I decided to tear everything down, and start again.

*July 29th, 2016*

So what I did was, first I set up a 30 gallong tank to hold all my livestock while I cycled the "new rock" and was ready to re-stock the tank.

The 30 gallon just had a heater, power head and my tank light.

I then took all the rock I had and dumped them in muriatic acid. Following the bath, I let the rock sit in some bleach for a few hours and let them dry out in the sun. Rinsed the rock and started aquascaping the "new tank".

TBH, the hardest part during this whole process was the aquascaping. I tried so hard to re-create the look I had first achieved because I loved it so much, but I kept ending up with totally different designs that I wasn't liking. I kept breaking all the rock I got too lol.

I finally ended up with something I liked, and I began the cycling process. I used Seachem's Stability for two weeks, and started putting the coral back in the tank and the livestock.

In my holding tank, I was losing SPS frags one by one. Luckily I didn't lose everything, but at least half of my collection was lost by the end of the whole restart.

And lost a few of my SPS as I placed them back into the "new tank", but I luckily didn't lose any fish in the process.

*July 29th, 2016*

Muriatic acid bath for all my live rock



*August 5th, 2016*

The Setup







Re-organized and cleaned up my sump, added a reefkeepr elite too 



Failed attempts at the aquascapes


----------



## Vinoy Thomas (Jan 4, 2013)

*Update*

*August 31st, 2016*

The new aquascape, and the livestock placed in the tank.





*September 4th, 2016*

The beginning of the cycle's algae bloom





*September 17th, 2016*

The hair algae taking a foothold



*September 20th, 2016*

Shipment from reefsupplies.ca comes with my new Ice Cap K2-50 Skimmer  honestly one of my best purchases. The quality and craftsmanship is just unbelievable, I've never owned something so nice lol











*September 22nd, 2016 *

The algae begins to dwindle.



*September 25th, 2016 *

Some coral shots





Pic of my favorite frags 

Pink Cadillac


----------



## Vinoy Thomas (Jan 4, 2013)

Algae beginning to seriously disappear





*September 27th, 2016 (Present)*

Algae virtually all gone.



I'm really happy right now, the tank is exactly where I want it to be other than the coral placement. I will be moving around everything to their permanent spots soon . But other than that, everything seems stable, polyp extension is good, and my fish are happy.

Thanks for reading


----------



## kamal (Apr 21, 2009)

Love the progress  Good stuff. Cannot wait to see tho coral grow out and fill the scape.


----------



## nc208082 (Jun 27, 2013)

Beautiful shots. These photos don't do this justice. Much more beautiful and clean looking in person. 

Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Tapatalk


----------



## conix67 (Jul 27, 2008)

Looking good! What kind of sand do you have in your tank?


----------



## Vinoy Thomas (Jan 4, 2013)

Thanks for the compliments guys 

I am thinking about getting a DSLR soon, so I'm hoping I can take better pics.

The sand I'm using is your basic CaribSea Aragonite Reef Sand  I really like it cause it doesn't make a storm as easily as the more finer sand with my powerheads.

So today I took some of the frags and placed them in more permanent locations. I'll see how they do and depending on their response I'll decide to keep them where they are or move them around.

Here is a FTS and a pic of all the SPS I will be keeping in the tank 

*September 28th, 2016*



































*FTS*


----------



## Orangutran (Oct 16, 2012)

Nice polyp extension

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk


----------



## Vinoy Thomas (Jan 4, 2013)

Have some algae on the right side for a few days. Should disappear when I replace my gfo/water change.

Can't wait till I get my hands on some siporax 



Water is crystal clear though.


----------



## zoapaly (Jul 10, 2013)

Let hermit crabs do this job no need wait for siporax


----------



## planter (Jun 9, 2008)

Thank a really nice layout the tank looks much bigger than it is.


----------



## Vinoy Thomas (Jan 4, 2013)

zoapaly said:


> Let hermit crabs do this job no need wait for siporax


SIPORAX > CRABS lolololol



planter said:


> Thank a really nice layout the tank looks much bigger than it is.


Ha thanks man! TBH the aquascape was the hardest part of putting this tank together :/ I broke so many pieces of live rock in the process lol

It was worth the effort I think


----------



## Vinoy Thomas (Jan 4, 2013)

Picked up a few frags from Albert.

Just replaced my GFO so I'm expecting the hair algae to disappear in the coming days. Also picked up 5 astrea snails from CanadaCorals.

Also, replaced my 6 ATI bulbs:

Blue +
Coral +
Blue +
Blue +
Coral +
Blue +

I'm loving the IceCap K2-50 skimmer, this is one week of gunk. Light-medium feeding.



Aqua Delight



Scorpion



FTS







Sump





*HAPPY THANKSGIVING!*


----------



## kamal (Apr 21, 2009)

Looking great bro 

Sent from my SM-N920W8 using Tapatalk


----------



## Vinoy Thomas (Jan 4, 2013)

Just picked up a Neptune Apex 

Gonna try and figure out how to work this thing 

I'm planning to get a camera to live stream the tank 24/7 so I can monitor it from school.


----------



## Vinoy Thomas (Jan 4, 2013)

*Apex setup*

Took a few hours to re arrange some of my wiring and surge protectors.

Hooked up the apex, just need to finish programming it now.

I got the parts for a DIY break-out-box following TORX's (thefragtank) diy version. Also, I need to finish programming the apex. Future plans include an IP camera to monitor the tank while I'm using apex fusion.

On another note, while tinkering with the apex programming in my room upstairs, I managed to pump 5G of RO/DI top off water into the tank lol.

Luckily, I was still working on the tank so I caught it quick enough lol. I fixed the salinity within 30min so I'm hoping when I get back home today everything is fine lololol.

Check this wiring out lol


----------



## Vinoy Thomas (Jan 4, 2013)

Got my Siporax today 

Put most of it in this DIY eggcrate I saw a few guys on Reef Central make to house their Siporax.


----------



## merlin416 (Jun 23, 2014)

DIY looks good.


----------



## Kooka (Feb 8, 2011)

Looks like some of your controllers are inside of your cabinet. I would put them on the outside because the electrical components tend to rust out in no-time when exposed to the humid/salty air within the cabinet (I speak from experience). Other than that the setup looks good.


----------



## planter (Jun 9, 2008)

That's crazy wiring. Man saltwater tanks need a lot gear.


----------



## Vinoy Thomas (Jan 4, 2013)

merlin416 said:


> DIY looks good.


Thanks man! In an effort to save money, I try to go DIY as much as I can. 



Kooka said:


> Looks like some of your controllers are inside of your cabinet. I would put them on the outside because the electrical components tend to rust out in no-time when exposed to the humid/salty air within the cabinet (I speak from experience). Other than that the setup looks good.


Good point man, I will need to rearrange the wiring to pull the controller out but I'm definitely going to mount it on the outside.



planter said:


> That's crazy wiring. Man saltwater tanks need a lot gear.


Haha, not really tbh! I just got all this stuff to keep my SPS happy, even then you don't need all the stuff I have lol.


----------

