Barney's 58l Modified Marine Nano

[1234-fishy-freind]

Looks fantastic. Not only is it fun to see your own tank coming along but its also fun to watch the development of others too. So any fishy plans for the near future or are you sticking with what you have at the moment?

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Yeah I think that is pretty much it for this tank now. I'm looking for some small, colourful zoa or mushroom frags and as soon as there are some available I'm going to get a couple peppermint shrimp . Other then that its now just a case of sitting back and watching everything grow

 

[SkiFletch]

Prepare the scalpel

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Its pretty amazing to see just how quickly it can move itself. I had always thought of corals as fairly slow growing/moving critters but it has moved about 5 inches in under a couple of weeks.

I have also been amazing at how far hermit crabs will go to get food. The other morning I heard some really weird tapping noises coming from the hood of the tank. Thinking that there was a problem with the lights or fans and went over to lift up the lid. I found one of the bigger hermits climbing over the divider from the back compartments to the main tank and the tapping had been his shell tapping on the lid as he squeezed his was through the gap (climbing out of the water in the process).

The firefish is doing well. He has somewhere in the back of the rockpile where he sleeps but now in the mornings he is out as soon as the lights come on and waiting for food

Only annoying thing is that one of the fans in the hood now makes a really loud buzzing noise for about 10 minute after it first comes on. I had been meaning to replace these sinze I got it anyway so this might force me into doing it (I might have a look at pulling all the electrics of of the hood while I'm at it and putting in bigger PC units).

 

[SkiFletch]

I have also been amazing at how far hermit crabs will go to get food. The other morning I heard some really weird tapping noises coming from the hood of the tank. Thinking that there was a problem with the lights or fans and went over to lift up the lid. I found one of the bigger hermits climbing over the divider from the back compartments to the main tank and the tapping had been his shell tapping on the lid as he squeezed his was through the gap (climbing out of the water in the process).

A sound many people attribute to Mantids. Always good to see the more-likely truth

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Little bit of an update.

I had a bit of an Aiptasia problem (suddenly had a bunch spring up from nowhere, think they came in on the xenia frag). Joes juice (my new favorite stuff) seems to have done the trick. I did also get three peppermint shrimp as well (more because I like them then out of any hopes they will eat any aiptasia I have missed). I have also moved one of the small frags from the ruge into the tank. its only a couple of small paly heads (i think) and a small mushroom but these where from little loose bits that where floating around in my LFS tank.

The frags, normally all three heads are open but think my fireshrimp was playing with them before i got the camera out

Fire fish. The little cave bit you see there is where he lives.

One of my hermits has decided that the back compartments of the tank are more fun then the front ones. I have moved him out of the back compartments 3 times now and he keeps going back so will just leave him now. Annoying thing is he is always clicking his shell against things and he tends to sit near the pumps with his shell touching and vibrating against them which is pretty loud (maybe he just likes the vibrations.....)

The Green start polyp has actually attached itself ans started growing over the rock I had laid it on which is cool

 

[plutosmate]

Barney, Great thread, good to see how yr tank is progressing.
Quick question if I may, the chambers in the rear of the tank, is there still stock sponges in there or did you replace with Live rock?
I've just bought a Orca TL450 and 3 days away from the bid jump into adding salt water and Live rock.
Any suggestions would greatly help.

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Barney, Great thread, good to see how yr tank is progressing.
Quick question if I may, the chambers in the rear of the tank, is there still stock sponges in there or did you replace with Live rock?
I've just bought a Orca TL450 and 3 days away from the bid jump into adding salt water and Live rock.
Any suggestions would greatly help.

I have just replied to your other thread mate and hopefully covered everything

In my back chambers at the moment I have the foam block cut in half with one half in the right chamber and one half in the left (removed once a week and cleaned out under a fast running tap). In the middle chambers I have LR rubble and I also have some polyfilter in there as well (mainly as a backup in case anything goes wrong and to remove nitrate).

Best of luck with the nano and make sure you post a journal of your progress

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Just a quick post to say hi more than give any real update. Looks like all my pics have vanished for some reason so will try and fix that.

I haven't updated in ages or even been on the site much because I have been moving. Both my tanks are currently sitting at my parents house until I get sorted out (which isnt to far from where I have moved to). The plan is that I'm scrapping my FW planted tank and turning it into a SW one then moving everything from my nano into there. Will start a new diary when I eventually get round to it (need to paint everywhere first). Moving has also meant that my plans for a really big marine tank are now completely dead

 

[aly_starh]

any updates?

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Hi,

This is a really old journal and I should have closed it properly ages ago. Basically after my last entry in here I moved into a new flat and closed this tank down then 12 months later moved into a new house with my girlfriend. We now have the orca set up waiting to be a seahorse tank (and I finally got my big reef tank ).

The new orca journal is here:
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/307894-barney-and-lyns-orca-nano-450/

Not been updating unfortunately as I have been really busy and my home PC is broken. Basically its still sitting in the same state but I did manage to get all the xenia out of there. Just added pods to it regularly with the odd bit of food to keep it ticking over until I have the time and money to do more with it

 

[aly_starh]

ah ok, it was a great tank anyways