My new 29 Build

[ambers20]

So I am new to putting my builds on here but I just broke down a 180 to make some space in my small house and transferred some of my rock and stock to a 29 gallon glass tank that I had laying around. I currently have a CPR bak pak skimmer on it and have the parts on order to do the MJ1200 conversion. I also have a hang on refugium and 420 watt light fixture halide, actinic, lunar led combo on the way. I have about 40 pounds of established live rock and a thin layer of argonite sand on the bottom. I have a 6 lined wrasse, mandarin and starry blenny. I also have 4 small blue chromis and a tiny hippo tang. Some hermit crabs, turbo and astrea snails complete the collection. So far it is stocked and running well. ( yes I know that the hippo tang is in a small tank however they are very slow growing and i will be into a bigger tank before it outgrows this one)

So here are the pics of the start of the build I will keep posting as things get added. My intention is to have a nano reef with just the small number of fish that I have.
I also have a small clam, some button polyps, various mushrooms and a bubble anenome.

Thanks for looking

 

[gas4544]

What is the orange coral on the right side of your reef?

g

 

[Chichas01]

You have 4 chromis, a mandarin, a starry blenny, a six line and a hippo, a in a 29 gallon tank?
You are probably overstocked with the 4 chromis alone once they reach half their adult size don't you think? Sorry not trying to bum you out, but your going to be a lot more bummed when things start going bad for your fish.

 

[ambers20]

What is the orange coral on the right side of your reef?

g

i believe that is an orange frilly sponge. i just placed it in a stronger current so it seems much happier.

 

[ambers20]

So i have scored a 20 gallon sump, overflow box and am going to be using the protein skimmer that I had from my 180 along with a refugium with some cheato and maidens hair. I will post pics once they are all in place and running. This should add some much needed water to my system along with some good skimming and flow. I plan on using a spray bar for my return behind some of my live rock. i thought this would be a good idea since I am already running 2 koralia #1 in the tank plus i will have the return from the hang on refugium dumping in. trying to avoid having excessive current.

 

[ambers20]

Tank Update

So I have had my tank running a couple of weeks now. Thanks to fellow reefers i scored an overflow, a nice sized sump and some cheato. Thanks again!!!
So now I have my tank set up with an overflow to the 25 gallon sump in which I have a huge skimmer that I was using on my 180. i have a 2800 pump running water to the skimmer and a 3000 that is returning the water to my tank. I have a on/off valve installed on the return so that i can tone down the flow back into the tank since it was causing my overflow to make a sucking noise and adding a lot of current to my system. I also have a hang on refugium with cheato, maidens hair and live rock rubble. I also have rubble in the sump and about 40 pounds of my rock in my system. \
2 koralia #1 pumps are on a wavemaker, one runs along the back wall on the bottom behind the rock and the other is angled from the back corner towards the center of the tank at about 3/4 height in the tank
I am running 450 watts of actinic and halide lighting as well.
Livestock:
2 blue green chromis
starry blenny
mandarin goby
six lined wrasse
hermit crabs
astrea snails and a couple of turbo snails
i have some button polys
various mushrooms
small amount of star polyps

i am looking for advice on what else to add
I am not looking to add any more fish but was thinking maybe some inverts and SPS/zooas? I think i have too much flow for lps but wasnt sure. Anybody have any advice on what else to add? I can post some pics tommorrow but i do have a lot of live rock for placing corals. Thanks!!

 

[ambers20]

updated pictures

So here are a couple of updated pics of my 29. I still havent added anything new but based on some of the research i have been doing on the site, i did remove my GSP from my tank. I also forgot to mention my bubble anenome whic is still not opening that well. I havent found a location that is to his liking yet. so here are the pics.....

 

[Chichas01]

The anemone will find the place it likes the best and frustrates you the most all on it's own. :lol:
How are your water parameters? Might be something out of wack if it's just not opening up anymore after more than week. Might consider a skimmer upgrade with the fish load.

 

[ambers20]

The anemone will find the place it likes the best and frustrates you the most all on it's own. :lol:
How are your water parameters? Might be something out of wack if it's just not opening up anymore after more than week. Might consider a skimmer upgrade with the fish load.

my nitrates are high but i just added the sump, refugium and the large skimmer that i had on my 180. So they are starting to get lower. But the bubble never was opening last well in my 180 either so i am not sure what its issue is. Maybe there is too much flow? i have been moving it around it has opened a little bit and I feed coral frenzy almost daily so.....not sure what i am missing. thank you for all your advice

 

[Chichas01]

my nitrates are high but i just added the sump, refugium and the large skimmer that i had on my 180. So they are starting to get lower. But the bubble never was opening last well in my 180 either so i am not sure what its issue is. Maybe there is too much flow? i have been moving it around it has opened a little bit and I feed coral frenzy almost daily so.....not sure what i am missing. thank you for all your advice

Yep, nitrates are probably your issue. Frequent water changes can help that along with reducing the fish load and the feeding. Try doing 5-10 gallon water changes every 3-4 days for a month or so and see how things improve.
I never used coral frenzy , but something makes me think that using it more than once or twice a week might be overkill. I think there is a thread in the SPS forum on it. You may want to just skip it altogether as I'm not seeing anything coral wise that requires you to feed them directly.
As for flow, so long as you don't have a power head aimed straight at it you should be fine. My BTA loves flow and since moving to a new home with metal halide lighting has never looked so good. Previously it was doing well under PC lighting and had had a K1 about 3-5 inches away from it and seemed to like the broad gentle flow.

 

[ambers20]

Update to 29 build

So a lot has changed since I started this thread. My most recent equipment list is basically the same but I have also added some more corals.
My stock list right now is
2 blue chromis
1 six lined wrasse
1 starry blenny
1 sea cucumber
1 nudibranch
various blue and red legged hermits, snails and a clam.
I also have a bunch of button polyps, xenia, mushrooms, ricordia mushrooms, 2 zoa colonies, candy cane corals, kenya tree and more that I forgot the names of. here are some updated pics too. enjoy