Nano Tank Diary...

[FrAnK3333]

Thats good. How does the tank look now?

 

[Malawiandude]

just got down going throw whole thread. Amazing bro, makes me totally wanna redo my 10g nano now. I am only running 40w of 50/50 on it, with 3" sand bed. I was considering ordering lighting from aquatraders but heard so many bad things about them on RC that made me go to ebay instead.

Do you have any problems keeping the tank cool from that 110w of power?

How do you adjust for ph when u are doing topoffs with RO or RO/DI water?

 

[parker313]

That's a nice looking tank..I've always wanted to do a nano reef tank for my office.

Go for it!! This has been a lot of fun!

Frank - Unfortunately, the tank looks like crap I had a major green algae bloom while I was gone and am having a hard time getting rid of it, it's on the glass (scraped most of it off now) and on the rocks. I guess it's hair algae, I haven't had a chance to do any research on it yet. I'll get it cleaned up, and this is the first time it's done that while I was gone. No more light than usual so who knows what happened.

Do you have any problems keeping the tank cool from that 110w of power?

How do you adjust for ph when u are doing topoffs with RO or RO/DI water?

No, if anything the lighting helps keep the tank warm. My heater is a piece of crap and really needs to be replaced. The temp fluctuates maybe 3 degrees during the day/night, but everything's fine.

As for pH, I haven't noticed any fluctuations when doing topoffs... I was using tap water, but I think that accounts for the algae bloom I had when I was gone and did this last topoff with R/O water but didn't notice any drop in pH

I think I lost my toadstool mushroom though When I did the topoff the other night when I came home, it retracted its tentacles and hasn't put them back out yet. Big Bummer. My zoos and polyps look great though and are even putting out new growth. My mushroom is doing OK but looking better.

I got some Cyclopeeze at the lfs when I was there and the fish went crazy for it B)

I can only find 2 of my 6 hermit crabs, and had to dislodge one of my Nassarius snails where it got stuck in the rocks. All of my snails are fine, I just can't seem to find my hermit crabs, I'll look a little more and then replace them if need be.

First order of business is finding out about controlling this algae and replacing the heater!

 

[FrAnK3333]

What about the bumblebee hermit crab?

 

[parker313]

No, he's not one of the ones I've seen, but he had again abandoned the bumblebee shell for his original shell before I left. He switched pretty often. Well, in that case, I may have seen him.... I've got 3 blue and 3 red-legs and I can't really tell them apart other than that
--Kristin

 

[parker313]

Good news!! I thought my toadstool leather was a goner, but this morning it was opened fully again! I'm really glad b/c it's kinda the centerpiece of my tank.

 

[parker313]

I decided to cut the lights back by an hour on my tank... The lights were on from 11a to 8p, I cut them back to noon to 8 to help eliminate the green algae. I'm also feeding less - once every 2-3 days instead of every day. These seem to really be helping. I still need to get in there and pull out some of the hair algae, but there are some other algaes (one that I really like looks like a small tuft of wavy grass) that are just growing a little, not taking over, like the hair algae. There's some bubble algae, just a couple bubbles here and there and some of the red, spikey kind. I know, I really need to go read up on what I've got in there )

The fish are all doing really well too, the clown goby's starting to come out more often. His colors are so cool!

 

[Malawiandude]

Hey parker,
I found that since i began soaking my food in garlic prior to feeding all species came out for the food, including my small masked goby who is constantly hiding.

I been wondering
What are you using as filteration other then the LR in there?


Marty

 

[blossom]

Wow, makes me want to flush my freshwater fish and start off my marine tank right away (only joking )

 

[parker313]

Hey parker,
I found that since i began soaking my food in garlic prior to feeding all species came out for the food, including my small masked goby who is constantly hiding.

I been wondering
What are you using as filteration other then the LR in there?


Marty

Thanks for that tip!! I've seen other people mention garlic but just hadn't tried it myself. The goby comes out for the Cyclopeeze too - I got some of that last week at the lfs.

For filtration, I have an AquaClear 30 (used to be AC 150 I think) with the sponge on the bottom and BioMax on top of it. I know they can leach nitrates back into the system so once every so often, I take the filter off and do a good rinse in the tank water I just took out (during a water change).

Thanks Blossom, it's been a lot of fun doing all of this!

--Kristin

 

[parker313]

Oh, I'm so excited I went to the lfs today for some water and I got a couple new hermit crabs. I still haven't seen more than 2 since I got back from vacation. While I was there, I mentioned that I was thinking about getting a new little coral and they had some xenia frags! YAY! I got a perfect sized xenia frag acclimating right now. I've always thought these were cool little corals so I'm really excited

 

[parker313]

New nano pics

Clownfish & firefish - my clowns white stripes are developing more and one of his pectoral fins is starting to get its black stripe too. I just love this little guy. When I look at the tank from different sides, he's always right there in my face, checking me out

Zoos, bushy algae and green clown goby - I was surprised to see my goby out, but he's been getting bolder. The zoos are looking nice too

Whole tank shot - There are tons of the little bitty fanworms on the back of the tank. I scrape them off the front and sides for the most part, but leave them on the back since they're good filter feeders. You can see some of the algae problems I've been battling, there's still some on the left side of the tank.

 

[Malawiandude]

Hey parker,
I found that since i began soaking my food in garlic prior to feeding all species came out for the food, including my small masked goby who is constantly hiding.

I been wondering
What are you using as filteration other then the LR in there?


Marty

Thanks for that tip!! I've seen other people mention garlic but just hadn't tried it myself. The goby comes out for the Cyclopeeze too - I got some of that last week at the lfs.

For filtration, I have an AquaClear 30 (used to be AC 150 I think) with the sponge on the bottom and BioMax on top of it. I know they can leach nitrates back into the system so once every so often, I take the filter off and do a good rinse in the tank water I just took out (during a water change).

Thanks Blossom, it's been a lot of fun doing all of this!

--Kristin

weird i never got notification of this reply. Really that is all u use? no skimmer or anything?

I have bakpak on mine but really wanna dump it as just PIA to take care of and that huge pump in the tank so am gonna switch and try ur way, and perhaps put a AC300 DIY fuge on there. Thanx.

Very cool pics by the way i am working on locating some more tonga branch locally by me so can use that as figi isn't as cool.

 

[parker313]

Yup, that's all I use... But with all the algae problems I've been having and the mysteriously disappeared hermit crabs, I am getting a skimmer. I know there's a way you can DIY one (instructions at nano-reef.com) but it's just a bit out of my DIY range. There's a "miniflotor" skimmer made for smaller tanks that I've been keeping my eye on. I asked about it on the Hardware forum and was told it should do a good enough job. Liveaquaria has them and I've got my eye on one on ebay as well.

 

[steelhealr]

OK Parker....I'm gonna be watching this thread more closely now. My 24 Nano Cube arrived the other day and I'm in R&D like you were. Aha...so...a skimmer, ay? A lot of posts say that you don't need one, but, a colleague of mine who has been doing salt since '85 said I would with 24 gallons. Well...like in the movie Meet the Parents...."I'll ...be watching......you ! (well, your thread that is). Thanks. SH