Barney's 58l Modified Marine Nano

[Luketendo]

Thanks for that, just had a look at their website and they look really good. Bit of a trek for me (about a 2 hour drive) but still better then spending £20 for next day delivery on a hermit and a couple of snails Will go and take a look at the weekend.

Yeah I went there the other day on my inset day because they won the best shop in the south for pfk last year. Their Tropicals were a little disappointing, they didn't have much of certain types, but they had lots of cichlids and their marines were nice. Their display tanks are cool too, they have a Tanganyika display tank, you can buy it too and they dismantle it and include everything but the fish.

 

[joecoral]

Looking good so far barney, the TL450 is an excellent tank, the only drawbacks seem to be the skimmer and UV steriliser seem to be quite prone to breaking in my experience
Another thing, instead of buying one of the master saltwater test kits, it may be worth investing in the Salifert individual tests. A little more expensive but much more accurate and easier to detect a change in colour
Just my two cents though
looking forward to seeing this progress
JC

 

[joecoral]

Also with regards to the mantis shrimp, are you sure it is a mantis? have yuo seen it or just heard it? If it's just a single click you hear its more likely to be a pistol shrimp, whereas if its several clicks in short succession ie "click click click" then its probably a mantis
Obviously if its one you have bought to put in there there in its def a mantis lol
JC

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Forgot to add that update, its not a mantis shrimp. No idea what it is. seems like a worm with 4 (maybe more) antena and a mouth like a slug/snail.

Too late on the test kits but they seem reasonably accurate (I took a sample to my LFS who use a different kit and got the same results, doesnt prove that the kits are perfect but should be close).

The tank doesnt seem to be too bad. The moonlight seems a bit dodgy, sometimes it turns itself off or dims, turning the main light on and off half fixes it. Think there must be a short in there so will take it apart at the weekend and take a look.

The Zoo's are a lot bigger now and the "frills" are more ummm frilly (technical terms I know, bare with me ). There is loads of algae growing over everything (glass, sand, rocks, ph) its not like any FW algae I have seen and is quite nice looking. I will post some photos later. Was going to post some now but just noticed that my Rams have just laid a bunch of eggs so got a bit distracted

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Ok brief update will try not to write too much

Tank stats are stable and over the last week I have added X4 snails, 1 orange legged hermit and a bloodshrimp.

Lots of algae everywhere but I acutally quite like the look of it so havent tried removing any of it yet. Two of the snails I got have not moved so I dont think they are alive. Will give them until the weekend then remove them (keeping a watch on ammonia just in case).

Zoo's are doing really good and have pretty much doubled in size (these where hitch hikers). I have lots of featherdusters spring up on one of the rocks (a lot of them are turning blue as well). The Coralmorph is also growing quite well.

Piccy's

Got two of these guys.

Some of the zoo's and what I think is a sponge. Some feather dusters on the top.

 

[CriX098]

Beautiful Barney. Looking great.

 

[connorsbala]

everything sounds like its going well

 

[1entra]

Looking good barney, the only thing however IMO you should deal with the all the green algae, as although you may not mind it now, it may well become a right nuisance in the future and you may struggle to get rid of it all especially when it comes to getting a few corals say, as it will compete with them for room and may try to grow over them etc. So best to something about it now before it completely overtakes your entire tank.

Other than that its all looks well!

 

[xxBarneyxx]

lol funny you should say that because yesterday I removed all of it from the sand and as much I I could from the rocks. It did start off looking pretty good but then did get out of hand. Going to get some phosban tomorrow which should help stop it from coming back.

I got two Percula Clowns today and they are just aclimitising now. I really debated with myself about getting these as advice seems to be split 50/50 between the tank being ok and the tank being too small. I decided to get them because they will be the only fish in there and they are both still very small at the moment. I have just started work on the stand for my big reef tank as well so that should be ready for fish in a couple of months so they will most likely end up in there. I'm still not sure I have done the right thing in getting them though (and I'm really of the opinion that you should only get fish for a tank that is already running, not one that is still being set up/planned).

My blood shrimp seems to be doing ok. I actually hand fed him yesterday which was very cool.

 

[xxBarneyxx]

So far the Clowns seem to be doing ok. One of them was a bit "nippy" for the first day but they seem to have settled in now. One of them will take flake but the other doesnt seem overly interested in it so I have been feeding Daph and bloodworm.

I fed them this morning to find that I magically now have one slightly larger bloodshrimp and one "copy" (which is pretty cool ). How often do these guys molt?

The blood shrimp really is the star of the show though, he is so funny when you drop food in there. He has a little overhang that he sits in and when a peice of food drifts by he pounces on like a cat and then goes back to his little spot to wait for the next bit

 

[Matthew5664]

If the iodine levels are right he could shed once a month. But once every 2-3 months is likely.

I believe that the clowns will be fine in there for now, if the bigger tanks on the way you could say that the nano is like a QT tank? Sort of cheating but for all intensive preprocess it’s the same. As for the feeding I would try Mysis over the Bloodworm. Bloodworm is not naturally found in the ocean and is more a freshwater feed.

 

[sid_zie]

Hi

This is my first post in SW, but i recognised the orca cube. I've had one of these with FW for about 10 months now and i thought i should just confirm that your suspicions of the fans are justified, mine did start getting noisy, but I've changed the lighting on mine to make it more suitable for a planted tank.

Otherwise it's been a great little tank, everything looks nice and all equipment is hidden in the back. I agree as well that i dont think the protein skimmer is much good - but i'm not worried about that.

Your tank looks great and makes me want to get another one and try a SW set up.

Keep up the good work

 

[xxBarneyxx]

I got my first corals today some Xenia and a colt coral.

The clowns have really bad white spot so hoping they will pull through ok. It seems to be getting better but will just have to wait and see.

Water parameters have all been stable, suprisingly the nitrate has stayed under 5ppm and I'm not currently using any nitrate removal. Seems to have gotten through the algae stage now so will just watch the nitrate and will pick up a phosphate test kit in the near future.

I added an extra pump in the back today as well which helps to stop the back chambers overflowing and adds some good movement. I did find the xenia didnt like the direct flow though so I have angled the spray bar to go straight across the tank. The Zoo's have got really big not and are really cool as they glow under the moonlights

Anyway enough text again, here are some pics. Hand to take them with my phone as I need to charge up my camera battery so not the highest quality.

Video:
[URL="http/www.ringo.com/videos/videos.html?videoId=243562619"]http/www.ringo.com/videos/videos.html?videoId=243562619[/URL]

The purple bits are marine putty to cover the holes in the back where most the micro bubbles come out. Not a pretty fix but it works (almost). I still cant get the skimmer working without filling the tank with microbubbles.

 

[SkiFletch]

Looks good so far Barney

FYI, those are Star Polyps, not Xenia

 

[xxBarneyxx]

I thought they looked like star polyps but I asked the chick in the LFS and she said "yeah thats Xenia"... Oh well she is really fit so I will let her off

I like these anyway and was going to get some GSP as well later on.

Battery is charged on my camera so one more pic before I go to bed.