Hi everyone!

 

I'm a new reefer in the Arlington, VA area of the WMA. I've wanted a reef tank since I was a kid but the cost was always a precluding factor. Now adult-me gets to get the dream going. My brother-in-law was a member of this group before he went overseas and recommended I join. Huge shout-out to those on here who helped me get some chaeto and also get my second clown out of my nano after realizing I had a potential aggression issue in my future. Figured I'd post on here as the tank has been up and running since June 2025. Anyway, really appreciate the community and have learned a ton! Part 1/2 for file size.

 

-Castle136

Part 2/2.

Hey there! Thanks for posting up! It looks great! I love nano tanks!

Tell us more about the tank?  Size, lighting, filtration, et al.  Looks great 

3 hours ago, YHSublime said:

Hey there! Thanks for posting up! It looks great! I love nano tanks!

Thank you! I'm really happy with it (and have two more coral that I just got off WWC's Black Out Week haha...I have told my wife that it's for sure the last additions - until it's stable enough for Acro's that is).

 

45 minutes ago, gastone said:

Tell us more about the tank?  Size, lighting, filtration, et al.  Looks great 

Absolutely!

I’m going for an LPS Dominated tank but final stage will be mixed reef with a few Acros. It’s the Red Sea Max Nano G2 glass 20 Cube AIO. Dimensions are 17.7 inches cubed.

I got the tank wet on June 17, 2025 and I’m using the A3 Apex Aquarium Controller System - Neptune Systems with no protein skimmer. I turned the back sump area where the protein skimmer was supposed to go as a fuge. I got 100% TBS live rock and sand to kickstart it since it’s a nano and my first tank ever and wanted to give it the best chance of success.

I’m dosing carbon constantly as a means of mechanical filtration between the chaeto and my return chamber along with sponges in between the fuge and then return chamber. 

My flow is the standard Red Sea pump that came with the tank and I’m using one VorTech MP10mQD.

The lighting is one Radion XR15 G6 Blue LED Light Fixture for the DT and the Tunze light bar for my fuge. I’m running my XR15 on the program from WWC’s website that is Leah’s 20. So it’s mostly blues and very little white light on a 12 hour cycle with my fuge back light on 14 hours on the opposite schedule. 

I’m using the BRS 2 Part Doser to dose All For Reef at 3.2mL per day right now spaced out over 8 periods. And I’m using the Tunze Osmolator 3 Auto Top Off with a 5-gallon jug below my tank.

My parameters are:

pH Level: Range has been mostly 8.1-8.25 over the last few weeks as it’s starting to stabilize out.

Salinity: 1.025

NO3:1ppm

PO4: I’m aiming for between 0.03-0.1. This has been a roller-coaster for me. When I first got the tank setup it was as high as 0.3. Finally, I have it under control with the time and a bit of GFO in a sock which is only as needed. And it’s been in my range.

Calcium: 450

Alkalinity: Aiming for between 8.2-9. Currently at 8.2.

Magnesium: I haven’t tested this yet.

Salt Brand: Tropic Marin

 

 

Stocking list:

1 x Snowflake Clown

1 x Helfrichi Firefish

1 x Neon Blue Cleaner Fish

1 x Possum Wrasse

1 x Yellow Watchmen Goby and Tiger Pistol Shrimp

1 x Urchin

6 x Blue Leg Hermits

2 x Trochus

1 x Nassarius Snail

2 x Porcelain Crabs (hitchhikers on the rock)

1 x Peach tipped torch

1 x Gold torch

1 x Future ex-girlfriend splattering hammer

1 x Candy cane

1 x Hail Hydra Goni

1 x Jewel Thief Goni

1 x Florida squeeze clove

1 x AOI zoa

1 x Golden eye zoa

1 x Magician zoa

1 x Zoa I forget the name of haha

1 x Fruit loops zoa

1 x Superman blasto

And I’ve got the Rainbow hammer and headless horsemen mushroom that will be here next week!

I feed once daily with either TDO pellets or Mysis shrimp.

 

**7 Feb 26 Update**

So long time without a post again, hectic holidays and trying to let the reef grow out. I had to do some modifications, the dosing line calcified within the last two weeks (my fault for having it be really long and not cut to size), so that dropped my alk a bit but we are bouncing back! Still dealing with some hair algae on the rock with two of my zoa frags and I've been toying with micro-dosing GFO in order to try and dial in the PO4s. I've been bouncing between .02-.09 and trying to hone in how much I can get in to sustain. I added a pincushion urchin to try and help and it has a ton! It cleared off my AOI zoa frag that was starting to get buildup too. I also saw some vermetid snails and have been able to bone cut and epoxy over two of the big ones and then I've added bumblebee snails to help get the ones I can't see.

Anyway, here are some updated pictures! My candy cane coral has split and my your future ex-girlfriend hammer has also split! Super excited to see the growth and hoping to add some fuzzy sticks in the near future!

Tank is looking great.  Both times I've started with TBS rock I've eventually gotten pretty hellacious caulerpa outbreaks that I've had to attempt to reign in.  Still love it for the diversity.

Thank you! Yeah I've been a big fan of the diversity TBS has come with! And the friendly hitchhikers have been super cool to see thus far! No caulerpa yet and fingers crossed haha!

Looking good, thanks for the update! 

Just some updated photos of the reef from today! Finally got to the point of a true mixed reef with my fuzzy sticks haha! Loving to see it all grow.

 

 

Looking good!

Thank you!

**25 July 2026 Update**

Hello everyone! Man, I am not good at posting regular updates to the tank. But it's grown a lot since the last update and it's been so cool to watch grow out. Recently got back from my first 2 week vacation away from the tank and thank God, came back to it being good. Some algae bloom and the alk was a little low at 7.2. But a quick water change and a lot of manual algae removal and it's back to looking great. After testing the auto-feeder for a week using a pot as my tester to make sure everything was working at the correct amount of food I wanted and boom. Fish and coral are happy and healthy! And, the clove polyp has TAKEN OFF! The Zoas have recovered and the mushroom has now spawned two new heads which is insane to see. The acros are beginning to encrust which is making me fangirl over the tank being stable enough to have them begin to grow out. Still working with the algae and PO4 levels. My params are currently:

Salinity: 1.025 (maintained to + or - .001)
Alk: 7.9 (corrected from the 7.2)
PO4: .08 (showing off the test but know there's gotta be more based off the level of algae growth)
Nitrate: 0 PPM
PH: 8.3-8.5
Calcium: 440 PPM

With the PO4 where it is I'm running a sock of GFO in the back sump all the time along with carbon. I just dropped off my old pincushion urchin as it had gotten a taste for acro and nibbled at one of mine that I ended up losing about a month or two back. I had also lost my blasto which I can only attribute to what had been an Alk swing that was too big for it and it ended up having it bleach very rapidly. All that to say, it's certainly not all sunshine and roses with the tank progression and I have learned a lot in the process. After trading in the urchin for a few more astrea snails I also added a brisstle star as part of my CUC for detrites, and also because I really just like them a lot and think they're cool. I'm still waiting to see growth happen with the torches but I know they're slow going. The goni's I'm really happy with and are just a little deflated in the photos from what I think is the lower alk after getting back. But I'm noticing growth which is also awesome!

My next goal is to work on my coloration. I've noticed that despite the growth in a lot of the coral like the hammer (which is now splitting yet again and also has two little branches growing underneath), I've lost a little coloration. So, I'm working on tweaking the dosing to try and increasing nitrates. I'm using aminos and am upping my feeding a bit to try and get my nitrates out from the 0 PPM that it's been at for a very long time.

Anyway, that's all for now on the update to the few following along! As always, patience, thanks everyone for following and also for seeing your progress in your own tanks.

Cheers,
Castle136

 

 

Pics of the new growth?  Glad to hear everything survived.

I tried but for some reason I'm getting an error saying that I've reached the max limit of file sizes. It may be user error on my part?

Modern phone cameras save very large images, it could simply be that you need to resize the image (crop or just halve resolution, for example) to get the file small enough to be uploaded.  You should be able to check file size in the photo's information screen, the forum upload size says it's a hair under 2MB.

 

Otherwise a third party image host should do the trick.

Edited July 29Jul 29 by DaJMasta

Thank you! I'll give that a try!

Very nice.  Any additions in the future?

Thank you! As of now, nothing...but then again, I told both myself and my wife that before the third acro and hammer.. But in all reality, just want to let it grow out and see how everything fills the tank. Got about two years left in the area before a move is planned so as much growth as I can get. Continue to learn and help get the best environment for the corals to grow. Right now I'm trying to help naturally get my nitrates above 0ppm. They've been bottomed out since about last August. My PO4 tends to run high and in the attempts to get nitrates up I'm continuing to run GFO in a sock in the back to help keep them in range. Upping my feeding and dosing aminos to try and up them naturally before moving to supplements so we will see.

Edited August 1Aug 1 by Castle136

Any advice is welcome! I'm seeing coral growth as mentioned, which is great! But my colors aren't as bright in some of my corals which is what I really want to get up with the Nitrates.

The colors are looking pretty good to me, but that can take some time to settle in too - often months to really get all the way there.  I think it's a good call to let things grow, in a tank as small as yours (or as small as mine) it feels like when stuff really stops looking like a frag, it's almost too big for its neighbors.  Keeping the numbers down will give you some nice bigger pieces provided they do well, and it helps the wallet a bit too 

Thank you so much! The biggest color difference I have seen is in the first hammer I got, the splattering hammer that seemed to have lost a lot of it's color in the center polyps. I'm not sure if that's just how it ages and grows as a natural part of the growth. The same kinda happened with my first goni, the neon green. When I first got it and was fully extended, it seemed to be a lot darker. Now the polyps seem somewhat translucent. But I'm with you entirely on this size of tank and letting them grow. I'm excited to get to a point where they all stop looking like frags :D and that advice will help my wallet and my wife telling me to stop looking at every coral sale haha!