Nano Tank Diary...

[parker313]

Just a tip, stop counting how much money you're spending. You'll pass out. I stopped counting once I reached $800...

I know, I know The only reason I was doing it in the first place is b/c I've seen several people ask how much it costs to set up a small nano and I thought I'd keep tabs B)

Now, my 46g FW, I don't even want to know how much $$$ I've dumped into that thing

 

[parker313]

Finally, some news to report

I got my SG set at 1.021 and got my first fish last night! I got a true perc instead of an ocellaris clown b/c the lfs said their stock of percs seemed to be hardier. Fine by me. I also got 2 hermit crabs - red legged and blue legged.

Total cost from yesterday - $27.53

Unfortunately, my poor little clown is looking kinda sick I thought for sure I'd find him dead this morning, but he's hanging on there. I will do a nitrate check and maybe a water change today. I just checked the nitrates a few days ago and there weren't any, but I REALLY shoulda known better and checked yesterday before I went to the store......

Now, I'll work on building up my cleaner crew and then at some point upgrade my lighting and go for some easy corals and then in a few months, maybe add another fish. I'm thinking of the Rainford/Court Jester goby right now.......

 

[parker313]

My next additions will be a few little bumblebee snails and maybe another astrea or 2

 

[parker313]

My nitrates were only at 10 yesterday. So, I'll check again tonight and get some pre-mixed SW from the fish store.

My clownfish is constantly worrying me, but he seems fine. He likes to hang out SIDEWAYS under the filter return! He just hangs out there, flapping his little fins. As soon as I drop some food in or disturb his area, he swims away just fine. Last night he was hanging out right by the heater, but this morning he was back right under the filter.

Oh, I just looked and now he's out actually swimming around

Copy from another post I just made...

I added my clownfish in the other day and he was looking a little sickly so I dropped in some Melafix as it clearly showed a SW fish on the bottle and said it was safe for all fish. Nowhere on the bottle did it mention having copper in it.

My 3 snails ALL almost immediately dropped off the rocks or glass and pulled in TIGHT. They would start to poke out again and clam back up. The hermit crabs seemed unaffected. I was worried about the snails and had an extra carbon filter from my big tank so I put it into the filter to get the Melafix out in case it was toxic for snails (never occurred to me that it might be b/c I have mystery snails in my FW tank and it never harmed them).......

This morning, 2 snails are back up and at 'em, no problem, but my astraea hasn't moved since last night and I'm pretty sure it's dead.

All told though, I'd rather lose a $2 snail than a $20 clownfish!

 

[parker313]

Oh yeah - I think I've ID'd my "mystery" snail. Here's a picture from liveaquaria.com, they call it a "top crown snail". It looks like it can get pretty big so it may need to be exchanged at some point.

 

[Cody]

wow i have a 10g doin nuthin and i think,thanx to u, im gonna start a nano tank. THANX parker. Its gonna b for the kitchen, and i think im gonna do a firefish cause those things r so cool. well thanx again for leading me into the world of marine

 

[Navarre]

Make sure that any marine tank in a kitchen is well covered. Fumes from cooking etc could really give the tank a "bad day"

 

[hyrookin]

percula clowns sometimes have pretty erratic swimming patterns.
if he looks healthy, is eating good, and is not constantly rubbing off
rocks or flashing off substrate, he's probably o.k.

 

[parker313]

Good luck with it Cody and like Navarre said, be careful in the kitchen... Also, keep it as far away from the stove as you can - even just the heat from that could throw a big wrench in your plans....

 

[parker313]

Bought some more goodies tonight

Coralife 50/50 bulb - $24.99
Gallon SW - $1.00
Polyps (yellow & brown) - $24.99
2 Hermit Crabs (and some empty shells, a bumblebee snail got tossed in too!) - $3.98

Total w/ tax = $58.26

I know the bulb's not a high powered one, but I'm just planning to stick with the soft corals and polyps - no hard corals or SPS. Hopefully these changes will help the little clownfish start to feel more at home. The guy at the lfs said that these little clowns (he's only about 1/2" long) take longer to settle in b/c they go through so many changes in such a short time. But for now, he's still very responsive and is eating really well.

First water change tonight.

 

[parker313]

Here are some pics of the new polyps...

I couldn't get a good pic of the clownfish and the whole tank doesn't look much different from the last whole tank shot.

 

[parker313]

Total cost to date = $205.34

However, most of the cost has been spent already... Until I get more corals and maybe more LR

 

[parker313]

I have a bumblebee, red-legged hermit crab!

I was just looking in my tank and noticed that one of my bumblebee shells was crawling around with red legs sticking out of it. I was worried for a second that the hermit crab had killed my actual bumblebee snail for its shell, but luckily, it just adopted one of the empty shells I had the lfs throw in the bag yesterday

It looks really cute

OK. Here's what I'm still planning to get:
4-5 more snails
Polyps or other soft corals
Rainford/Court Jester goby
Blood Red Shrimp

I think that's it. My LR is only at about 10.5 lbs, but as I add in more chunks with the corals on them, it should bring it to a good amount. The snails I can add in as I want, pretty much, the corals, shrimp and fish will be more spread out as they can get pretty $$$.

 

[Navarre]

Nice Yellow Zoos you havce there. They usually grow like mad and willsoon cover most of that rock. For some reason however, these are a bane of my tank and i cannot seem to make them thrive. I think its a temperature thing because in the spring tey were doing really well but in the summer they closed up completely. In the end i gave them away to a friend of mine and they are once again fully open Shame because they look great when they are a large colony on a rock. )

 

[parker313]

Thank you! I'm really enjoying them so far. This morning, I fed some freeze dried brine shrimp and one piece got caught on one of the brown polyps and it closed up on it for a while and when it opened back up, the shrimp was gone. It was pretty cool.

For some reason, I'm partial to these sort of corals more than some others

Oh, I forgot another thing I want to get at some point - a fan worm