Nano Tank Diary...

[Malawiandude]

Hey parker, comng along good!


I am going to try ur way on filter, as I am moving that 10g of mine to my office saturday and dont want a honkin big bakpak skimmer on it. Just gonna stick it out with WC's..

Have you ever seen the phosban reactor at work? Me and buddy had this problem almost immediatly after we put in a couple powerheads, algae growth significatly increased in front of the flow, and anothr guy came in and said he had problem too so he installed the reactor and saw a great drop in the development of it. It isn't that expensive and figured it could sit in the stand, so am gonna try it.

I finally get some nice corals for the tank (about time) GSP's to start and one month should have some pulsing xenia frags ready for me. Just my lonely anemone doesn't cut it anymore.

 

[parker313]

No, I haven't seen the Phosban reactor....

However, my miniflotor came today. It's quite a bit bigger than I anticipated - much taller AND wider.... I think it will be OK though. I had a feeling that my air pump (a Rena Whisper for 10g) wasn't going to be strong enough and I was right. I got everything set up and I've got the air pump going and it's making some nice bubbles, but not nearly enough to get the water anywhere near the collection cup. As it was, I had to redo a lot of my rockwork to make room for it, but it looks OK now.

So, off to the store before the little one's naptime to get a stronger pump.....

 

[parker313]

Oh, and just because I can, here's a picture of my little guy. He will be two on March 21 and his name is Brodie. He's a real sweetpea... (there are a ton of pics in our online photo album)

 

[Malawiandude]

cute kid!

Yea i like them minifloaters they nice. I think i am going to sell the bakpak2 and buy a seaclone 100 for the 10g, i need something that won't take up all the space in the back like my bakpak, and figured well if seaclone is crap on bigger tanks might just do good job on a 10g! lol.

How come u need a air pump? it's not venturi action?

 

[parker313]

Yeah, the miniflotor is working really well, but it's just too tall for my tank. When Brodie goes down for his nap (any minute now), I'm going to have to saw off some of the tube so that the bubbles can reach the collection cup.

It's got an airstone to generate the bubbles, so I needed an air pump to get the air to the airstone.

I had to redo my rockwork a lot more than I would have liked. I just hate stirring stuff up so much in there, it can't be good for my corals and other inverts

 

[parker313]

Well, I asked over on the nano-reef.com forums and they recommended letting it settle in for a few days and seeing if it just takes a few days to get a good foam going. The way these skimmers work (ones with airstones at the bottom) is that they need a long reaction chamber for the particles to stick to the bubbles - so, the shorter the tube, the less time there is for particles to collect. It will work, it just won't be as effective.

So, patience, patience... I'm leaving on Sunday for vacation and will be gone for just over a week. We'll see what it looks like when I get back.

My pumping xenia's looking kinda sad though It was looking sad, but it was back to pumping yesterday so I thought it was going to pull through. This morning when I was moving rocks around, I'm afraid I damaged it and now it's all clamped down again. Everything else survived the upheaval just fine though. Fingers crossed for the xenia....

 

[parker313]

I'm glad I didn't jump the gun and break out the saw. The bubbles seem to be slowly making their way further up the tube. Hopefully this setup will work out OK.

Unfortunately though, I don't think the poor xenias are going to pull through...

 

[Malawiandude]

sorry to hear that. Sucks, i am very impressed my anmone has lasted as long as it has being my first one and all. well let's hope he survives the move to the new house now.



Was that move on the xenia the only thing that could have hurt it?

 

[parker313]

No, that wasn't the only thing that could have hurt it. When I first got it, it was just the coral frag, it wasn't attached to anything. So, I wedged it in place with a rock for it to attach itself to, but the problem was that I left too much of the stalk exposed to the glass. When I moved the rock/coral into its permanent place, it had also started to attach itself to the glass and I was more forceful with it than I would have been if I'd realized it was as stuck as it was. So, it was already a little under the weather from that and I was trying to nurse it back. I think that, plus getting accidentally mashed yesterday was what did it in.

I just feel bad b/c it's totally *my* fault and I could have prevented it if I'd been more careful with it. I'm really hoping when I get back in town that the lfs will have another frag b/c I really like the pumping xenia...

The skimmer's working really well still. The only thing I don't like about it is how wide it is - it makes my lights sit on top a little funky. I'll have to take a picture of the whole setup later...

 

[Malawiandude]

yea that sucks i hated that about the bakpak too, i managed to get it to work but am gonna go to seaclone100 on for my tank. Would be interested in seeing entire setup.




I love them xenia, cant wait to get some, what other good beginner corals, i have on list first is GSP, green striped mushrooms, and pulsing xenia....



O finally got my moonling on, be sure to check it out

 

[parker313]

Other good beginner corals are pretty much any of the softies. I love my zooanthids and my toadstool mushroom leather corals. I'll have to check out your moonlight tomorrow, time for bed tonight!

I just got home from vacation and other than being hungry, my fishies are all OK! YAY!! Well, I haven't seen the green clown goby, but I don't see him often anyway. The water's a bit low so I'll top that off in the morning after I get more FW from the LFS. The skimmer's still working great, got about a half inch or more in the collection cup - pretty nasty junk too.

When I get caught back up on stuff around the house, I'll get some pics up of the skimmer

--Kristin

 

[parker313]

Good news, I saw my green clown goby today YAY! That means everyone is present and accounted for

 

[Malawiandude]

cool cool.

 

[parker313]

WooHoo! My mushroom has propogated itself! (don't even know if that's the right terminology I looked last week before we went on vacation and noticed that the base of the stalk was looking kinda funny and wondered if something was up. Sure enough, when I was looking through the side of the tank, there's another little mushroom in there next to the big one! YAY! I can't tell if it's getting ready to sprout some more new mushrooms or not, but I'm still pretty excited

Also, on one of my polyp rocks, there's another little white coral starting to grow! It almost looks like the little ones I had growing earlier that didn't make it, but it's still awfully small to ID, I'll get a pic when it gets a little better.

I'm still bummed about losing my xenia though I mentioned it to the guy at the LFS who does the nanos himself and he said that when his xenia at home gets big enough, he'd frag some off for me if he could!

 

[Salt Freak]

Ya thats the right terminology. congragulations this is a sign that you have a healthy nano tank. it will continue to do this. my mushrooms are doing this to