Office Nano Tank Tour! Greg's New UNS Reef!

What's going on reefers? Blaine here. We are over in the new online office space. I'm sitting here with Greg and today we're going to be talking about a brand new tank, but a tank that Greg had or better yet, you had a system running 2 years ago. We talked about it on the channel. Greg, [music] we have a completely new system here today. What do we got for the tank we have here now? Yeah. So, it still has the bones of the original tank itself, which was a like 9gallon peninsula tank. [music] Now, we've shrunk down a little bit in this new space. I've gone to an all-in-one instead of a canister filter like before and pretty much everything's [music] changed except for the rock that you see in here now. Um, other than that, some of the corals came over with the rock, but it's it's a new tank for being a a 2-year-old tank. Really, like a three-year-old tank, but in a brand [music] new glass box. Something that I loved about the system originally when you had it in your desk on the other side of the street was the clown fish. I love this maroon clown so much, the stubby, but it's completely grown into its true stubby form now at this point. How how has it been keeping the maroon in here? I know a lot of people talk about the issues with maroon clowns. How how do you like having this maroon? So, I really truly love this maroon from the get-go. This is what caused me [music] to set up a tank was this maroon clown. Um, as you said, she is a stubby, so she's a little bit smaller. Uh, she's really enjoying her an enemy at the moment by the looks of it. Uh, and for the longest time she wouldn't host anything. I've tried a couple different nymphs, [music] both in that old setup and in this new one. And for the longest time, she wouldn't host. And we put in this Black Widow probably 6 months ago or so, and she took straight to it. There wasn't a question. I don't know what switched, [music] but she really loves it. And that kind of means she really hates me now. Um, even just in filming this now, we went to make a quick couple changes to the tank and she was on top of me. She was biting me and lit me up and I was nowhere near the clown herself. Like was on the opposite side of the tank. But as far as opposite side of the tank goes, the tank's not that big now. We're we're down to like almost a 4gallon water volume. Um so we cut it in half and you can really see that with the rock structure cuz before there was a whole front section of the rock and an island and that's that's gone now. What is the make of the tank too by the way? So this is a UN 30A. So, it is one of their all-in-one series. Um, [music] and then as far as equipment goes, not much has changed there. Uh, we [music] still have the castle lighting. We have added some new things. I've actually gotten rid of my hydro setup. I still [music] wholeheartedly believe in controllers, but I want to take this tank back to the basics, really what any user could kind of start [music] with and have great success with. So, we still have the Nero. We've changed atto's to the infill atto. um really basic atto, but [music] it works really well. And then as far as that goes, we also have the Inclear roller mat. And I will say, you've actually probably seen this tank a couple times in other videos like the Inclear. Um we did a whole product spotlight on that and my tank was the B-roll for that. Um but that's really it as far as equipment goes. There's not a whole lot else. There's a CJ heater on there and that's that's about it. There's not really anything else for filtration other than biomedia and some [music] old rock in the back chamber from the original tank setup. Yeah, I'm sure during that change over to the new tank when you added that old rock in, it probably really helped with kind of getting that quick cycle going. The end clear, [music] you know, roller mat is something that has been really awesome to see working in this tank and something I always point out [music] when it comes to technology in reef tanks. Roller mats in general are so big and so prevalent in today's reef keeping age. This is an awesome option for people that are looking for a cheaper, more budget friendly nano version, too, though. And then pretty cool, too, when the UNS stuff gets shipped in. The stands come pre-shipped as well. They come all in a box as one thing. So, pretty cool. We ended up both getting two stands from UNS, uh, you know, and got to set up our tanks with them. I really like the way this looks and I like the way you're able to do some nice wire management on the side. Obviously, you're the king of wire management around here, but I love how you've kind of added it all together. And with it being nature dimensions within a couple pieces of equipment, the controllers look nice here on the outside. Like I said, no more hydro, so there is just a basic power strip underneath. And then we do have the two controllers on the outside. That's pretty much the only controllers of the whole system. There is the controller for the Nero, but I do everything on that through the Mobius app, so don't really ever touch that. But I want to make sure you can really get to everything. if you needed to change anything really quick, it's right here on the outside. Make quick changes, [music] no real issues there. This is actually the second office that I've moved to since we did that original video. Um, before I was in our retail offices, then I moved over to be with our online and warehousing, and now we're in an [music] actual office space, but everything did really well with that move. It It's not what we would suggest when moving a tank for the livestock in here. Talked about the maroon, talked about the nem. Let's talk about some of the other corals. Love the little LPS garden you got going on up on the top. All the euphilia. Let's talk about the different corals you chose for the tank. I really truly love a true mixed reef setup. Um I do want to mention it's my favorite thing in the tank and it's not something you see a lot of. Uh I have this sea whip or gorg. It's it's a wild gorg so I really couldn't even tell you what it is. It came from the Florida Keys down here. Um it has managed to move through all the different iterations of the setup. By far one of my favorite corals, especially when the waves really get rocking in the middle of the day. You get really good movement out of it. But I am a sucker for Aans. As you mentioned, I have an AAN garden here at the bottom left. It has some AANs. It does have a blast in the center as well. And then I'm trying out a couple different types of trumpet corals. We have the neon green and then we have the green center with kind of a purplish blue rim. The one that I'm really looking for right now that we haven't had in a really long time is I want to get the blue trumpets. They're they're a classic piece and when you see them, you see a lot of them, but when you don't see them, you don't see them at all. And we're definitely in one of those phases where you don't see them at all. I do have a gani in here as well and a little plate coral [music] that both came out of our farm. They're both aquaculture pieces. And then a nice euphilia garden at the top of the tank. At the top of the rock, I am planning on trying out some SPS. I don't know if it's going to be anything too crazy, but I do want to try my hands to have that true mix system. And then there's a couple other pieces scattered throughout the tank like the Duncan at the front. [music] There is a zoa garden buried underneath the anemy. The poor poor zoas are probably not the happiest cuz that nem has moved a little bit and decided that it wanted to live right on top of the zoa garden. Uh so I'm going to try to pull those out of there. But one of those things people need to realize when they end up getting a nem in a tank is that it can potentially start moving around. Has that been an issue a lot or has this black widow kind of found one certain area it likes to hang out? Knock on wood, the black widow has not moved in months, but at the beginning it moved all over the place. So, right in the middle of what is our now euphilia garden was the black widow. There's a nice crevice at the bottom where it's at right now. It seems [music] to be happy there. But the big thing with nims, and I think anyone that has them can tell you [music] this, they'll just move out of the blue. No real particular reason. It seems to be really happy where it's at, but I don't hold my breath and I just pray that it doesn't decide to move over to the opposite side of the tank. What are we doing for cleanup crew? Cleanup crew, really basic on this tank. There is probably a dozen or so red hermits. Probably half a dozen or a dozen so blue legs as well. A mix of troa snails. Um I don't really have turbos in here. Turbos do a great job, but in small tanks they get really big and they can just knock stuff over. Um, and then of course there's some Nisaras and stuff in the sand bed [music] itself. Um, I do like a thicker sand bed for a nano tank, but I really like having a white sand bed as well. So, I would suggest probably a fighting conchk. Um, and it's something that I'll probably add in here eventually cuz although the sand looks good, I'd like to have it even cleaner than it is right now. And I know you added this pretty [music] recently, but a fish that kind of hides quite a bit, we haven't been able to see it too much. Uh, what's the new fish we added into the tank as well? It is a itty bitty yellow clown goi. And I actually see it right now. I'm sure we'll get [music] some shots of it later, but it is probably half of an inch, maybe 3/4 of an inch long. Um, I wanted something else in the tank, but the problem is with that maroon and the size of this tank, [music] there's not a whole lot else that we can add because one, we don't want to put too much in the tank itself, but two, [music] the maroon would definitely be a little bit of a menace. um as far as things go, [music] if it was like an open water fish. And then what are we feeding the tank? Feeding the tank, we do a couple different things. Um both frozen and pellet. So we use our Reef Genetics pellet [music] food, but we also, a lot of people online don't know this. We have a Reef Genetics frozen food as well. Right now it's just localized to the store. It is going to be going online soon. [music] Um but we've been trying out the Reef Genetics frozen food on this as well. This is definitely a tester tank for a lot of products, [music] both in-house and products that we sell. Um, but it's a really good [music] test for us. Even last week, we did a video about the ACI Absolute Ocean, and I'm going to try out for the next couple of months here, the Absolute Ocean on this tank, and that's going to be what we're going to be doing water changes with. Yeah, it was pretty unique to see the ability to make a quick water change for a tank just like this. Kind of the perfect size system for it. You took a question away from me though, like maintenance-wise, outside of like the small water changes here and there, what else are we doing for maintenance? Of course, there's not a whole lot. We clean the glass every couple of days. [music] The Inclear does a really good job of keeping the water absolutely crystal clear. And then the auto top off, filling that up every once in a while with this tank. It has probably about a 2 gallon auto top off on it. And that lasts for a good 2 weeks [music] or so. Other than that, there's not a whole lot. It's really pretty easy as far as maintenance goes. We do a water change once a week and I'm kind of lazy. I do them every other week and sometimes we'll even go about a month out. And it's just kind of a testimony for if we let the systems do their own thing, they actually normally prosper without [music] us messing with them. Yeah. One thing we typically tell people all the time is to get into bigger tanks, right? Get a bigger tank, get more water volume, you have less room for error. I'm curious to hear from you. What are some of the tips you would give people if they're looking into getting to a smaller system? You're having success with this nano tank. What's helping you with that success? A huge thing is an auto top off. If there's one parameter that can really mess up nano tanks, [music] it's your salinity. And in a small tank, even if you lose a cup, two cups, a cup or two cups in this [music] is a huge amount of water. So, we always want to make sure that that salinity stays stable. I think that's one of the main things in a system like this is salinity. So, auto top off for sure is something that you really truly need on a nano tank. [music] Um, and it just makes life so much easier cuz like we're in an office. We're not here 2 days a week for sure, but I bounce in and out. Uh, you know, my warehouse is offsite, so I'm not always in front of the tank. I can't always be doing things with it. And that is just a huge one to not really have to think about. Talked about some of the maintenance you got going on. What are the numbers we're shooting for in the tank, Greg? So, salinity of course 1.026. 026. I normally run it a a hair lower, [music] 1.025, just because of that whole evaporation thing. We can see huge slowity spikes if not. Um, nitrate, I like to keep this tank a little bit dirtier, probably around the 20 part range. [music] Phosphate pretty low, 0.01 to 0.05. Um, I am having a little bit of an algae issue right now, so I'm definitely trying to keep on the lower end of that. Um, calcium, alkaline, magnesium is pretty much where we keep all of our tanks. Calcium's in the 400s. Um, alkalinity, we keep it around 8 to 9. Definitely want to be closer to that 9 to 10, but there's nothing that really truly needs it in here. And then mag 13 to,400 at any given moment is pretty good. I don't really chase it. Um, the nice thing about the Absolute Ocean that we're trying out is it does have all the traces built into it. So, I don't have to do much in the way of dosing or especially trace in a in a nano tank. You really don't want to do trace in a nano tank. [music] Um, all those parameters are baked into that mix already. If I play more into SPS, which this tank really could with the lighting that's on it, um, we'll kind of readress and go from there. And [music] the one big thing that I miss, I don't know if anyone will notice, I notice every day from the original tank to this tank is when I broke it down, I did say goodbye to my clam. I [music] loved that maximize grown it out from about a/2 in OA clam. It was was tiny when I got it. I used to have to dose [music] strictly for that because that clam took up so much both nutrients [music] and calcium and alkalinity. Even with it being a nano tank, you do have some space left for more corals. Like up top, I see some room. You do have quite a bit of corals in here, but you've made enough room for some more corals. I'm excited to see down the line what you end up adding in. And also, we need to do an update not within 2 years. We definitely need to do one a little bit sooner. What are some of those choice pieces? I know you said SPS that you would ultimately want to kind of get into this tank. [music] Yeah, of course. Um, like I said, this is the same rock structure from the original tank. And if you look back at that video, [music] my big thing was being able to have room for growth, but also have depth. And that's really hard in a nano tank. And I don't actually think this rock is perfect in this [music] sense for this tank because it is a little too big. We cut the tank in half. But yeah, there's definitely some negative space in the back. Um, I really truly love plating acros, and that's a that's a big task in a in a nano tank. But I definitely want to try my hand at acros. Maybe the Bill Murray, maybe uh [music] Fruity Pebbles is one of my favorite. Voodoo Magic, and then a couple things on the little island that juts out in the front. Island isn't the right term, but like the little arch that juts out in the front. It's going to be weird to say, but further down, putting something like a Digi [music] or a Stylo, uh an SPS can keep a little bit smaller in the front, which [music] isn't something people normally think about when they think SPS. They think it has to go at the top of the rock. Um, that's something we didn't talk about actually is the PAR in this tank. Um, the lighting overall in this tank is identical. Let it be at the very top or the very [music] bottom. Um, this light is definitely designed for a tank much bigger than what it is. Um, so I can easily cook [music] between 2 to 400 PAR at any given moment in this tank. And it lets me play with things like SPS in the middle or bottom of the tank where [music] you wouldn't normally be able to do that. Well, Greg, thanks for letting us stop in again. stop you from working. Of course, I I do this with everyone. It seems like I just stop everybody from doing their job so I can do my job. But this has been fun talking about your nano tank, the development of what's been going on with the system, [music] where things are at now. But looking forward to getting an update here very soon. If you guys are interested in picking up any of the different pieces of equipment that Greg's running on this tank or the tank itself, head over to the website right now, topshelf aquatics.com. And if you guys have watched all the way through, I want to say thank you very much. Be sure to like, subscribe, and hit the bell notification so you don't miss out on any future uploads.