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Mike's 30-Gallon Nano Reef

Mike's 30-Gallon Nano Reef

Volume
30 gal
Tank type
Mixed Reef
Cut the bottom out of an Innovative Marine skimmer and drove it with a wood airstone instead of a pump for simple, quiet skimming.

A 30-gallon Innovative Marine Nuvo 30 set up ~6 years (a reef for ~2 years, previously a frag tank) run by Michael Rice of Elite Reef Denver. Kept deliberately simple with weekly 5-gallon water changes, daily glass cleaning, a Kessil A350, a calcium reactor plumbed to the ATO, and no chemical filtration. Packed with colorful chalices (Pink Boobies, Mummy Eye), Acans, Lords, and a Jack-O-Lantern Leptoseris.

View original source
Source: YouTube · Reef Builders
What sets this tank apart
Air-driven modified skimmer
Cut the bottom out of an Innovative Marine skimmer and drove it with a wood airstone instead of a pump for simple, quiet skimming.
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Calcium reactor plumbed to ATO
Runs a Julian's/Tunze calcium reactor off the auto top-off so kalkwasser/calcium is dosed automatically with every top-off, keeping levels stable with no manual dosing pump.
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Modified VorTech grill for flow
Cut out every other piece of the surrounding grill on the MP40 to increase flow through it in the small nano.
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Daily glass cleaning as observation ritual
Cleans the glass once a day specifically to force himself to slow down and observe the tank — 'the best test kit is your eyes.'
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Equipment Breakdown

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Filtration
Innovative Marine Protein skimmer
Innovative Marine
Protein skimmer
Protein skimmer
🔧 DIY mod
Bottom cut off and driven by a wood airstone instead of a pump — an old-school air-driven conversion that runs silent, costs pennies, and still pulls skimmate.
Lighting
Kessil A350
Kessil
A350
Display light
🏋️ 5-year workhorse
Five years on the same unit and the corals still color up — proof a quality fixture outlives the upgrade cycle.
Modern equivalent: Kessil A360X Tuna Blue →
Compact fluorescent bulb
Refugium light
💡 Budget hack
An ordinary household CFL grows Mike's chaeto just fine — macroalgae wants lumens, not reef-grade spectrum. The $8 answer to a $150 refugium LED.
Flow & Circulation
Maxi-Jet 1200
Maxi-Jet
1200
Return pump
🏋️ Workhorse
The ~$20 powerhead that's been the hobby's default return for two decades — nothing to break, cheap to replace.
EcoTech Marine VorTech MP40 ("EC drift 4.0")
EcoTech Marine
VorTech MP40 ("EC drift 4.0")
Wavemaker
⭐ Premium pick
Magnet-coupled driver keeps the motor outside the water — and an MP40 on a 30-gallon is serious overkill flow, dialed down instead of maxed out.
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Monitoring & Control
Digital Aquatics ReefKeeper Lite
Digital Aquatics
ReefKeeper Lite
Controller
Automated heat, lights and top-off years before smart controllers went mainstream — the discontinued ancestor of today's Apex.
Modern equivalent: Neptune Apex Controller →
Dosing
Calcium reactor + kalkwasser via ATO
Ca/Alk supplementation
💡 Budget hack
Kalkwasser dosed through the auto top-off, so evaporation itself replaces what corals consume — free dosing infrastructure, topped up with two-part.

Husbandry & Notes

  • 5 gallon water change once a week as the main maintenance
  • Clean the glass once a day to slow down and observe the tank
  • No chemical filtration — no carbon, no GFO, nothing needing replacement
  • Kalkwasser plus calcium dosed into top-off water to slowly boost levels
  • Dose alkalinity buffer once a day; magnesium occasionally when calcium lags
  • Keep maintenance simple enough to reproduce reliably long term
  • Run VorTech on random mode at full power all the time
  • Group corals by species/type to manage aggression
Reported parameters
Temp (°F)
78
It's a 30 gallon Innovative Marine tank, been set up for about 6 years, only been a reef for probably 2 years now.
I try to keep this tank to where any maintenance I do on it is simple enough that I know I'm going to be able to reproduce that in the long term.
The best test kit is your eyes — you got to stop and observe the tank.
It's so easy to change 5 gallons of water.
No chemical filters, I try not to use anything I have to replace.