Setting Up A Nano

[cuticom]

Oky doke the tank is set up and the salt is in. Everything seems to be running well considering how long it's been dry. It does give off a rather loud hum but next year I'm going to be in a resi (what Americans call dorms) so I really do have to get used to noise LOL. Photos will come a bit later when the waters cleared. I've also added in a small amount of filter wool and some granula phosphate remover just to ensure the water's at the perfect levels, I'll remove the filter wool once live rock goes in and the water clears. I'll also look into buying a new impeller for the aquaclear.

 

[cuticom]

So it's not very pretty but oh well I tried that last time, I think I just want happy healthy creatures this time. Obviously the pumps will be moved around once rock is added. The large one on the left is the 950l/ph with filter floss and phosphate remover the one in the middle 150l/ph nothing in the cartridge and the one on the right 600l/ph. It adds up to 1700l/ph which is about 26 x turn over which should be good though I would like to use the aquaclear as well just for surface movement. The Skimmer is sitting in the upper right corner of the tank.

 

[youngfisher]

Very nice indeed.
You have made a nice job.
Whats the plans stocking wise then?

YF

 

[cuticom]

Stocking plans would be very light, one small fish probably a yellow clown goby and corals that require little feeding. Defiitely a torch or frogspawn, a leather or toadstool, maybe some zoanthids and mushrooms, just the easy to care for ones.

So just tested the water just to see what's waht as I do remeber the salt I used was deficient in some areas and I just wanted to get a baseline, some of the results were a bit odd though.
Temperature- 26 degrees C
s.g.- 1.024
pH- 8.8 (our freshwaters very alkaline so the pH always goes up when first mixed, it usually settles fairly quickly though)
Ammonia- 0.1 (just the teeniest bit off 0, may retest this dunno where it could come from)
Nitrite-0
Nitrate-0
Calcium- 360ppm
Alkalinity- 80ppm
Magnesium-1260ppm

My Alkalinity is very low and Calcium is a tad low, though will leave it for now and let the tank mature with liverock, will just have to keep an eye on it when I get corals.

 

[cuticom]

Still reading, and reading and reading LOL. Everything seems to be running smoothly on the tank, however i haven't had a chance to test the skimmer because as can be expected after 18months of disuse I have no air stones that don't self destruct when placed in water. So I need two air stones to get the skimmer back up and running and a new impeller for the aqua clear though I may not use the aqua clear, might just leave it sitting on the tank as a convenient place to set up drip feeds. So tomorrow I'll see what I can get from the LFS for the tank, I'm thinking 5kg of Live rock and two of Base rock. I don't want to spend more then $100 on the rock and liverock is $16 a kg base rock is $10 a kg. Sigh I don't actually like my lfs, the fish and equipment are amazing and well priced but the staff... As I'm 17 I get grilled every time over my choices and asked where my parents are etc, it's so irritating.

 

[cuticom]

Just retested Ammonia this time the test was 0, so I must've just made a mistake or something first time round.

 

[cuticom]

pH was still at 8.8 this morning so I added a small amount of vinegar to bring it down. I also now ahve a tank of rock, the store had the most amazing corralline covered rock, it was cured and absolutely covered in life, was also only $13/kg I got 10.4 kg as I kept seeing nice bits LOL. One piece had a kenya tree, and there's also a small anemone thing and also a cowrie snail which I'm just off to look up to make sure it's not a baddie.

 

[cuticom]

Oky Dokes I attempted to identify the cowrie the only cowrie I could find with red tentacles was the wandering cowrie Cypraea errones. No info on diet except it 'probably' eats sponges and algae, so i'll just keep an eye on it and give it back to the store if it does go for the corals that are there. Pictures are coming, as soon as mum gets off her computer so I can upload them. Oh and pH now stands at 8.4

 

[cuticom]

OMG their is soooo much in this rock, there's two anemones that i need to check on, so many bristle stars but best of all theirs a teeny tiny fuzzy baby sea urchin, it's so cute LOL.

 

[cuticom]

So Picture Time.

The Aquascape for now, it may change, not sure

The Cowrie Hitchhiker

A Mini Urchin!

Anemones, are these Majano? the Majano pictures I found mainly had green tips and long stalks... Sorry about the quality, my camera doesn't like how little contrast there is between the nem and LR

A bad pic of the Kenya tre

Some random Sponges

 

[cuticom]

Trying to idea the nems it's quite difficult, they have bubbles at their tips and are a similar colour to a pink frogspawn, but surely they couldn't be bubble tip anemones? They have absolutely no hint of green which would suggest they aren't majano's

 

[Anguilla82]

difficult to tell from the pics but they don't look like majanos to me.

can you get a better pic of one of them?

 

[cuticom]

I can try, they're on the very top rock of the aquascape so was trying top down shots. I'll borrow my Mum's camera and see if that takes any better pics.

I actually do remember having one of these the last time I had a tank, it came on the LR, I think I was told it was a ricordea...

 

[cuticom]

More hitchhikers spotted. There's two teeny red tubes with feathered tentacles maybe baby Kenya trees, then there's a big cluster of red brown tubes with short stubby tentacles, they don't look quite like aiptasia and they are all clustered together, do aiptasia live side by side?

 

[cuticom]

Just borrowed my Mum's underwater camera, hopefully these pics are a little better.

So the strange Majano/Anemone/Riceordea thingmajigs

And the strange things that I don't thing are aiptasia, they have feathery fronds on their tentacles, aiptasia certainly doesn't have that.