Aqua One 500 Nano Reef!

[littleme1969]

I have both and yes they would be fine.
But personally I would not get a yellow tail as they are a pain in the butt. Grumy and constantly dig under your rock work!..lol Mine drives me nuts.

Clown gobbies are great I have 2 of them. The clown is also OK. Why not think about something like a bicolour blenny. these are supper cute and very entertaining to watch. Mine eats pretty much everything so they are easy to feed. If you want a dmsel either get a chromis or a talbots damsel. Both are far less bother, and the talbots are very pretty fish.

 

[cuticom]

Not a fan of chromis or talbots, the yellowtail blues are really the only damsel I like apart from clownfishes, besides theres not much rockwork in the tank to dig under. I'm going by availability in my area as well bicolour blennies are extremely scarce and extremely expensive, and I only have two LFS's I can use so their out, plus I'm after more brightly coloured fish for this tank...

I'm after a combination of bright colours...

So would a pair of occelaris clowns and a clown goby work? because if it does I'll get a B&W Occelaris and an orange occelaris (yes that pairing does work) and a clown goby of some form.

 

[littleme1969]

Yes that would be just fine. Clown gobbies wont bother anything.. other than SPS which they seem to enjoy eating.
As for colours of fish.. believe me I would always put compatability above colour any day. If you dont you may end up with a real problem. Blue damsel in a tank thhat small would just kick up a real stink. Churning up your sand bed ever few minutes and pretty much having a go at anything else in the tank. the clowns wouldnt stand a change as they are real bullies!
Mine has to be the only fish I would get rid of. thats if I could ever catch the little bugger without stripping out the 100g and spending 2 hours chasing it round the tank! lol

 

[cuticom]

Yah I wouldn't put incomatible fish together, but don't see any reason to get a fish I don't like simply coz its compatible.

 

[cuticom]

Still reading reading reading LOL, Tis strange I always fin actually stocking a tank hard, and now I have two tanks to stock. Okay so I've been doing more reading and I'm starting to reconsider the idea of clowns in a nano, sounds like it's more a survive rather then thrive type of thing, so I might leave them for my reef tank.

But I was wondering do gobies get on together? I can't really find an answer... A "school" of yellow clown gobies would look nice... like maybe 3-4 of them.... and just that. Otherwise if that doesn't work I think I'll probably just get a single goby and have fun picking inverts.

 

[cuticom]

Stats now

3.1kg Liverock

Equipement
Skimmer powered by 30l/pm airpump currently turned off
2 25w heaters
950l/ph internal filter with filter floss

I've rearranged the LR, added a few chunks of dead coral and shells.

I added a dead shrimp on the twelfth of April

Ammonia 1.5
pH a tad low at 7.9 but I'm sure it'll rise
Nitrite 0
s.g. a bit low at 1.022 so will raise it by topping up with saltwater


Tank today

 

[cuticom]

I've added in a moonlight now, so I can check on the tank at night. It's just s simple low energy orangey coloured light which dimly liights the tank, looks quite good actually.

Also found a great recipe for an interesting version of lightweight extremely porous liverock, using concrete and pool salt, so am gonna have fun tomorrow trying to make it LOL. Would make some interesting decorations for the tank.

 

[cuticom]

Ammonias surprisingly already started dropping, it's now at 0.75

Added a dark blue background, amde up of two A4 sheets of dark blue Opaque plastic, $3 total

Moonlight, night light with light sensor so it switches on when the tank light switches off and blue cellophane, $5

DIY Liverock, it's still setting at the moment, then I'll cure it for six weeks. It was really simple and quick to make using 3 parts salt and 1 part off white concrete, theres more pieces buried under the top two... Gloves, 20kg concrete and 20kg pool salt (100% sea salt) cost $15 all up. I've used barely any of the concrete or salt

 

[piranha_trader]

Whats the brand on that moonlight? Id like to look into it.
If you had a link that would be excellent. Never seen one like that before.

 

[cuticom]

Bought from Dicksmith in Australia in a pack of two Quell Nightlight

Fourth one down...
http/www.chubb.com.au/utcfs/Templates/Pa...d%3D582,00.html

 

[cuticom]

Well the DIY Lr worked wonderfully, will share some pics soon...

 

[cuticom]

Ammonia has dropped below 0.5, Nitrites have the slightest reading well below 0.25 but a teeny bit above 0 and Nitrates are now reading at 10. pH is still at 7.8.

Semms to be a pretty quick cycle but half the LR that went in was completely cured and the other half had been pretty much cured already.

So next Thursday we're going to a new LFS we've heard about so think I'll pick up some hermits and snails then, if the tanks not completely ready I'll just put them in my QT tank till it is.

All I've got on my stock list is a yellow clown goby, so not sure what will happen with that...

Anyways the DIY Lr came out quite nicely and has been placed in water to begin the 6 week curing process, the first batch looks really good, the second batch which I made this morning is still setting at the moment.

First batch

Second Batch

The rocks are a tad strangely colored but I think as they cure they'll start to look more like baserock, the color is actually extremely similar...

 

[SkiFletch]

Looks great man, W2G

 

[cuticom]

Hmph Batch One seems to have started disintegrating over night, I've taken it out of the water in the hope that might help somehow LOL. I've taken a small sample from batch two and put it in water to see if that batch is ready...

 

[cuticom]

Results today

S.g. 1.024
Ammonia- 0.25
Nitrite- 0.1
Nitrate 10
pH 7.8

So it looks like the cycle is going well... Not sure on the pH though, I would've thought it should have risen by now, should I get something to buffer it? or just leave it for another week? Theres nothing in the tank that'll buffer pH the sand is just standard no brand sand... Maybe a bag of crushed coral in the filter or something?