David's 30 Gallon AIO Nano/Micro Reef Build

If you want some controllable powerheads until you get Vortechs, you may look at the jebao powerheads. Two wp 10s with the dual controller would run about 115 shipped. I have the wp25s in my 55g and am happy with them, they do require at least monthly cleaning, and I have never heard mine click. :)
 
Thanks for the replies, guys! I'll check those powerheads out. They sound interesting! And now for another update:

Well, here is the tank, filled with water (I have it set a little far out from the wall so I could observe the flow through the sump and install components more easily).

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I have installed all the equipment, and routed the cables in a way that works for now, at least. I'll tidy it up a bit more later. I mounted the Reefbrite White XHO, and it looks great! I think I'll wait until the next paycheck rolls around to grab the blue XHO, seeing as how I won't need either of them until I'm done cycling the tank.

Here's a shot of the media tower I built out of eggcrate:

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It fits in the intake section really nicely:

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I originally included a little handle at the top for easy removal, but I found that the top section of the tower interfered with the water flowing over the teeth and made an undesirable noise, so I ended up removing the top section of eggcrate. Everything is great now!

The sump cover looks pretty darn slick on this thing. It gives the tank a nice clean appearance, and the cables fit perfectly through the hole at the back:

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I'm pretty pleased with the way it's turning out! I'm going to be making water tonight, and I might either fill it with saltwater so it can start cycling late tonight or tomorrow afternoon. I'm also going to be painting this thing to black out the sump section on the sides.

I have noticed one thing, though... My Sicce Syncra 1.5 return pump seems to be making a slight buzzing noise that I didn't notice before. It doesn't really seem like the noise is coming from the pump itself, but actually seems to come from the bulkhead/return elbow area, or perhaps the Loc Line... Anyone else experienced this? The pump is on the suction cup feet, not touching any walls, and it's connected to the elbow with vinyl tubing. The bulkhead is nice and tight, as is the Loc Line... I'm not sure what's causing the buzzing sound. It's pretty faint, but I'm fairly certain it wasn't making that sound earlier in the day. Let me know if you have any ideas. Thanks!
 
Well, the time has finally come... Here she is, all set up and cycling!

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The water is a little cloudy from the sand, but it's getting clearer every minute! Other than that, everything looks great! I am actually considering adding a bit more sand, as I think it looks a little thin... I have my carbon and GFO running in the media tower, but I'm not currently running my skimmer. Between the live sand and the Bio-Spira I poured into the tank, I'm hoping for a pretty quick cycle. Fingers crossed! I checked and double-checked the salinity of the water with my refractometer, using a target value of 1.026 (35 ppm). The paint turned out really nice on the sump section:

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So, the build is finally done (or at least it will be when I buy that second XHO, haha). Now it's just a matter of waiting for the bacteria to do their thing, and finding some neat fish and corals for it. Feel free to give me your opinions on great local sources for those. :) Here are a few parting shots of the tank:

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Looking good. I'd add more sand, doubling what you have now. The arch is nice. How did you paint it? Brush or spray?
 
Marc, here it is with some more sand, filling in the lower spots. Now I've gotta sit through this cloudiness again! :p

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I think I've got a little over 30 lbs of sand in there right now. Some of it is just hidden by the bottom trim. Look good? Also, I used a 4" roller designed for smooth surfaces to paint the sides. It took about 3 coats, but the drying time was something like 5-10 minutes for each coat.

Here's a question... Does the live sand or Bio-Spira provide any nutrients for the cycling process, or do they just provide the bacteria? I'm wondering if I need to thrown in a raw shrimp or something like that. Thanks!
 
not sure on the additive having a food source, would think not. could add a shrimp or just ghost feed. I ghost feed myself
 
No nutrients in BioSpira. And I agree that carbon will only take out what you are putting in initially. Don't run your lights during the next week or two, as it only will grow algae and won't help with anything beneficial.
 
Alright, so last night I threw a raw shrimp into the tank to provide the bacteria with the proper nutrients they need. This morning, I noticed that the coloring of the shrimp had changed from grey to reddish, so the change is underway! I read your posts today, and I immediately took the carbon and GFO out of the tank this morning. I decided to familiarize myself with the testing kit, so I took some initial readings of ammonia and nitrate, as well as pH. My temperature is holding at 78, and my salinity is rock solid at 1.026 (35 ppt). My ammonia seems to be just slightly under 0.2, and my nitrate reading was between 2 and 5. I'm not really sure how to interpret this, and it may not even matter, as it is so early in the cycle. My pH concerned me a bit -- it was 7.8. Is it fairly common to have a lower pH with a new tank? I know that pH is often lower in the morning, and that it takes a while for the rock and everything to stabilize the pH in a new tank. Just curious... Anyway, my water is still kind of cloudy from adding sand that second time. I'm hoping it will clear up in time. There doesn't seem to be much change in the milkiness of the water from last night. I suppose all is going fairly well. I am definitely leaving the light off while the tank cycles. I only turned it on to take those pictures the other day. Thanks!
 
Well, the tank seems to be clearing up. I think the cloudiness/milkiness in the water was actually a bacterial bloom due to the addition of the Bio Spira and the bacteria from the live sand. Here's a picture with the light on (just briefly). You can also see my raw shrimp, which appears to have cooked to perfection:

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It's getting better and better. If you view the water in the corner of the tank from an angle, it catches the light so you can actually see a faint cloudiness that seems to billow with the current, but it doesn't appear to be particulate. Thus, I tend to believe that it is bacterial in nature.

Also, I re-read the instructions on the Bio Spira bottle, and it says "Remove all medications with a water change or activated carbon." To me, that says "remove medications from the water by changing the water or using activated carbon to remove them." It doesn't read to me like it wants the user to remove their carbon filters... Anyway, I ended up putting the carbon and GFO back into the tank the other day. I don't really think it will make too much of a difference one way or the other.

As far as I know, the cycle is going well. The water temperature seems to stay rock solid at 78 degrees, and the salinity is still at 1.026, with the ATO working properly. I'm not really worried about testing ammonia and nitrite levels right now because it's so early. I'm trying not to worry about pH too much, but I feel like it's a little odd for my pH to be 7.8 when everyone is always talking about 8.1-8.3. In Marc's article, his never even drops below about 8.1. If my pH were fluctuating between 8.1 and 8.3 like his, I'd be totally content. However, I'm concerned that mine hasn't even reached 8... I'm using a Red Sea test kit, which I assume does a fairly good job. Maybe I'm just being impatient, and the pH will rise as the cycle progresses.
 
pH will rise when: 1) you run the lighting each day, and 2) when you dose the tank with something like B-Ionic daily.
 
Well, I made the mistake of adding only a raw shrimp tail to my tank, and I wasn't seeing any rise in ammonia levels past 0.2... After some advice from Marc, I added a whole raw shrimp to the tank, and my ammonia jumped up to 0.8 overnight. Today, my ammonia is at 1.2, and nitrite and nitrate are both on the rise. My water is a bit cloudy again, so the bacteria must be in full swing. I'll continue to monitor, but it's safe to say that the cycle is fully underway!
 
Alright, so it's nearing the end of Day 3 with the full raw shrimp in the tank. My ammonia is up to around 1.5, with nitrite at 0.5 and nitrate at 0.7 or so. As per Marc's instructions, I will be removing the shrimp later tonight, and I'll be waiting for the drop in ammonia. I'm a bit confused as to how the bacteria survive when the ammonia drops to 0 and there is no source of ammonia in the tank anymore, though... Anyway, the water is a bit cloudy still, but I'm sure that will fade once the shrimp is removed and the free-floating bacteria die down.

Here's something I'm rather interested in... The piece of rock on the right side of my tank, which I purchased dry, seems to resemble a piece of dead coral. My wife thought it was an interesting piece, so we incorporated it into the rock work. I noticed some dry purple spots on it when I picked it up, and I have found that these purple spots seem to have "come back to life" since I added water to the tank. Over time, I think they have grown a bit, even without lighting. They look like little spiky projections jutting out from the rock, but I have no idea what they are. It's not coralline algae, but perhaps it's some sort of sponge. Here's a picture, though the quality is rather poor:

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Any ideas on what this might be? I'm interested in learning more about it. Thanks!
 
Here's a little chart I made of the cycle thus far. I added the intact raw shrimp on the night of Day 3:

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Since removing the shrimp last night, ammonia has dropped slightly, and nitrite is definitely on the rise. Nitrate is also increasing, but it was doing so from the very beginning. Perhaps this is due to my live sand?
 
Nitrate is the result of Ammonia and nitrite breaking down. Live Sand can't make nitrate, but if some of the life died off, that might.
 
Thanks for the kind words!

Alright, so here's a question for you guys... I was under the impression, based on a number of things I've read, that coralline algae will not grow without an initial source (a trusted piece of live rock, for instance). Given that my tank was started with all dry rock, this was a point of concern for me. Today I was told that as long as my calcium and alkalinity were right, the coralline algae would grow on my rock, without the need for any live rock. So, which is it? I'm just not sure where the initial coralline colony is going to come from if all I have is dry rock and saltwater... I did use live sand, so perhaps there are some coralline remnants in there?
 
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