My Nano Reef Set-up/diary (upgraded 45g) Step-by-step

[1entra]

Ive just spent over an hour writing this new post and uploading pics and all of a sudden my pc froze on me and i lost it all Not happy as i'm having to re-write it all again so gonna have to keep this short as poss...

Anyways lets start again:

Its been a while...​

Well Ive not posted for a while due to being busy with work and family commitments. Well quite a bits been going off in the tank as I have added several new additions. The params have been stable and Ive cut back on testing as long everything looks happy and all the corals are open etc.

The MH unit is brill in comparison to my T5 unit and Im well pleased I invested in it. However my sun coral has not been as pleased as I kind of forgot that it does not like high lighting. Well after it refusing to open for over a week I decided to change my aquascaping around abit so there is more of a ledge over it shading it from the MH light. Well a day or two ago a couple of the heads opened at feeding time so it gave me a bit of a sigh of relief as I was starting to panic thinking i may have lost it.

Well today I decided to take the sun coral out of the tank and placed it in a bowl to feed it by spraying mysis shrimp and lobster eggs over it. It took about an hour or so but eventually I managed to get ALL the heads open and feeding before placing it back into the tank:

I bought myself another Fire Shrimp, hope it gets on with my current one as keeping it in my fuge for a few days to make sure it's fully de-stressed before adding it to the main tank in case the other attacks it:

Also got what I believe to be a Red Marble sea star:

A frogspawn:

A almost all dead trumpet coral was thrown in for me at the lfs as they didn't thin it had much chance of surviving much longer in their tank. Well anyways after adding it to my tank I believe it is doing a lot better as a few more small pure white daisy-like polyps have grown in place of the dead/empty ones. I know its not the best pic but my camera just can focus in enough to pick up the beutiful small poylps:

And what appears to be a small neon green plate coral that came as a hitchiker on a piece of flat LR that I bought in the intention of creating a cave!

And finally a Royal Gramma that is very shy and stays in the rockwork most of the day in a cave of it's own. I just cannot seem to get it on camera. After first day of adding it to the tank I noticed it had a small chunk missing out of it's tail where it had been nipped by one of the others! But since then it seems to be doing fine as I have been keeping a close eye on it. It only really comes out of it's cave around feeding time. You can just see it in the cave behind my sun coral in my top pic:

Now a few shots of the tank. Under MH daylight:

Actinics:

Toadstool frag:

Trumpet coral:

Florida Ricordea, pic does it no justice, its absolutely stunning:

Bubble coral with tentacles out at night:

My shrimp molted for the second time today and I noticed my Bubble coral eating the old skin:

I like this final pic as it more realistic of how my tank actually looks, shame the sun coral wernt out as that would have been brill!

Anyways I hope you like the pics and the the new aquascaping (it aint much different). Well let me know your thoughts...

 

[Matty P]

Very nice pics - do you know the name of that red starfish (scientific + common), because I have one but I don't know what its name is.

Cheers

 

[1entra]

Very nice pics - do you know the name of that red starfish (scientific + common), because I have one but I don't know what its name is.

Cheers

Thanks Matty. As far as I'm aware its a Fromia sp. a.k.a. Marble Sea Star.

 

[timpetty]

Tank looks great!

 

[SkiFletch]

Looks great. I have but one concern

In the above picture, above and slightly to the left of the starfish, what are those? Please tell me they're palythoa or zoanthids, and not a colonial anemone hitch-hiker?

 

[1entra]

Thanks for the comments guys.

Yea that on the rock is a palythoa of some sort ski, not an anemone. I had the guy at the lfs throw it in when I bought a coral a while ago!

Also my new fire shrimp molted in the fuge today. Thats both my fire shrimps having molted a day after one another, I believe this is a sign of good water quality right?

Also just a pic of a new coral that I got this weekend gone but didnt get a chance to get a pic of it as the pics were taken before I added it. Its a torch coral.

Hope you like it...

 

[Lynden]

Plate corals have a sedentary juvenile stage, attached to a rock by a thick stalk. When they get big enough they secrete a weak acid that dissolves the stalk, then become motile. It would be best for him if you dumped it in the sand at this point.

Otherwise, great tank dude.

 

[badlandz]

Wow, I just spent the better part of my afternoon reading this thread. Great looking tank! Glad you seem to be past all those issues you were having. All the detail you put in here made for a very informative journal and could be really useful whenever I can finally start my own venture. Thanks for sharing your experiences!

 

[1entra]

Thanks for the comments guys, they really do help keep the thread going and the advice helps me improve my methods and resolve any issues that I may have Glad you all like the new look of the tank...

Due to your advice Lynden I will be moving my plate coral onto the sandbed when I cayy out a water change this weekend.

Also on a side note I thought I would mention (as I do not believe I have done so already) that I have stopped using Seachems Reef Salt and instead moved over to using Reef crystals. This is due to several of my lfs's all using this salt and all their tanks looking good and healthy. Sine using the salt I have found my Fire shrimp has molted twice and the new fire shrimp also molted yesterday, and all my corals and livestock seem happy with the change

Also got a couple of pics of my Royal Gramma during feeding time when it decided to come out to eat

 

[BigC]

Really good to trawl through these journals on TFF they really are a goldmine of information.
Comming along nicely 1entra, How do you find the torch coral, I too am going to get one eventually. Any problems with them as such in regards to lighting, flowrates and positioning. Regularly following your thread. Incidentally I've put your tank pic on my website but you've probably changed the tank since then any chance of a fully updated full frontal pic (of your tank)
Regards
BigC

 

[1entra]

Also just to mention I'm starting to get a large amount of flatworms appearing on my front and side glass panels and they do not look too appealing. I dont really want to be using a chemical like flatworm exit to get rid of them so instead thinking about getting myself a pajama/6-line wrasse to help me get rid of them! Does anybody else have any other ideas or recommendations?

And another pest I'm starting to get is diatoms on a small part of my sandbed. I believe this is due to my phosphate remover needing replacing so i have got myslf some Rowaphos which again I will add this coming weekend when I do a water change. Hope this sorts that out...

 

[1entra]

Really good to trawl through these journals on TFF they really are a goldmine of information.

You right mate they really are good and reading through many of them is what helped me set up my tank as other people's experiences are invaluable in helping you out!

Comming along nicely 1entra,

Cheerz BigC

How do you find the torch coral, I too am going to get one eventually. Any problems with them as such in regards to lighting, flowrates and positioning

I really like my torch coral, they are absolutely stunning. But just like my frogspawn I find they are no way keen on high water flow. I had to move them around into areas of low flow before they even considered opening up fully! I do not think they are too bothered about lighting so assume they prefer it medium and so IMO should be placed around the middle of the tank. Before buying either I had positions set for them to fill but had to finally change them as they refused to come out. Now they both seem to like their spots and so open up fully!

any chance of a fully updated full frontal pic (of your tank)

Well I'm glad you wrote tank there in brackets otherwose I was about to post a full frontal pic of myself! Il try to sort one out for you soon but the above pics are more less up to date...

 

[1entra]

Tragedy strikea again... ​

Iv not had chance to come online but I came home sunday 27 Jan evening to find my clownfish was not in my tank. I looked everywhere but it was nowhere to be found. Like my fish in the past it had also mysteriously disapeared. This really is doing my head in coz the clown was feeding just fine and seemed very active and healthy the sat night before when I last seen him alive and well!

The water params are just fine and nothing else seems to out of the ordinary. All my corals seem happy and are open on a daily basis so I cant really suspect the water? Also both my shrimps are alive and well and so I cant really say there is a predatory shrimp in there that seems to be eating my livestock...?

But this is the 7th fish (5th clownfish) I have lost whilst having set-up my marine tank several months ago! Its just so strange as like this one, they have all just vanished never to be seen again, except 1 clownfish which had jumped out of the tank, but that was before I had a cover for the top so I cant really say this one or the others have followed suit! I am sure my LR is from the Bermuda Triangle and thats why my fish keep disapearing!!

Any advice on the situation along with any possible suggestions would really be appreciated as as you can imagine I really do not want to be losing anymore livestock!

PS. my damsel, firefish and gramma all seem to be fine!

 

[piranha_trader]

This is SOOO friggen bizarre I cant even believe it.

Man...right when you thought you were in the clear too.


You have a milk crate (or some other barrier) on top of your aquarium right?


I hope you catch this criminal. So weird.

 

[timpetty]

Your tank is seriously cursed haha. Im sorry to hear this is happening again. But to make u feel part of the group, my 6line just disappeared in the same way. No evidence of a carcass or anything and the tank is covered. Was alive and healthy last nite.