Sf05's Slow And Steady

[SkiFletch]

Agreed, the rockwork looks great and the tank looks healthy for sure

 

[Fatty]

Fantastic Nano!,

The rockwork is V.cool.

I had the same problem with the scum on the surface and re-directing one of my power heads to an inch under the surface did the trick. It will also help Increase your PH, as a build up of CO2 decreases PH, and as most gas exchange happens at the surface it is important to have some surface agitation.

I've read to test this you can remove a litre of water (maybe on a water change) and stick a airline bubbler in it over night and test the PH in the morning, if the increase is 0.2 or more than there is CO2 build up.

 

[Siamese Fighter05]

Thanks guys

I'm not too sure what type of feather duster they are to be honest the rock was from fiji but there might be lots of different varieties out there? I also have one green one

I have tried moving the PH up close to the surface but my problem then becomes that the water bounces of the glass and stirs the substrate up and makes the water go cloudy

Anyway talking about Powerheads and substrate i woke up this morning to find my first nano disaster
My powerhead had fell of the suckers and had fallen to the substrate face down so the substrate was throw everywhere. My tank is quite cloudy now so hopefully things will clear up or i'll be doing another water change

When i took out the maxi-jet to see what the problem was, the impellor is wonky and won't go in properly. I've tried cleaning it all out and refixing it. It's making alot more noise than usual and i'm worried that it might come back off I'll get in touch with the people i bought it from and see what they say

Dan

 

[@ombomb]

I have the opposite problem with my power head, I tried to move it yesterday and it took near superhuman strength to get it off the glass!

If you're going to replace the powerhead, it's worth having a look at the powersweep ones. The movement of the jet really helps with surface agitation.

 

[Aquascaper]

Forget the powersweeps, they clog up with salt frequently and require cleaning IMO

One thing you can do is pull the Hydor rotator apart and carefully snip off 3 of the 6 blades, this allows a greater water flow but you still get the rotation - it may mean you can place the powerhead slightly lower in the water but still get the surface agitation required.
When you stick the powerhead back up try either adding a dab of silicone to the cups, helps it stick a bit more but still lets you pull it off if you need to, or just make sure you stick it to the glass underwater with no air trapped on the cups.

 

[SkiFletch]

or just make sure you stick it to the glass underwater with no air trapped on the cups.

Agreed, thats a known problem with almoast any type of powerhead. My maxijets were a little bit of a pain to mount until I realized the air was making them fall off. havent had a problem since I got the cups dry

 

[Siamese Fighter05]

Thanks for your help and comments guys

I did a water change yesterday and pulled off the powerhead to give it a good clean. When i put it back on i did without water and the filled the levels back up. So it must've been the air trapped in like you've said
Luckily everythings cystal clean again.

I don't have the hydor in there anymore as it was doing no job in helping with the surface scum

When the tank gets moved downstairs i will try and rearrange the top part of the rock work so that i can position the PH higher to remove surface scum

Although i said i didn't want another clown as my final fish, I'm kinda leaning towards the idea again as i love my little guy. He's got so much personality and is geat fun to watch.
He host's my mag float by day, chases my finger around the tank, sleeps sideways on the maxijet at night and comes swimming towards me when i enter the room
My LFS has lots of little B&w clowns in ATM but i'm not sure if i should add it now to reduce stress of bullying when my clwon grows in what could be up to 3months before moving downstairs. Or should i leave it until i go downstairs and let them establish an order. Maybe a b&w and normal wont even pair

Dan

Thanks
Dan

 

[Siamese Fighter05]

Bad News! Dun Dun Der...

Yesterday i had an arguement with my best mate over something that was not my fault. He must've realised that it wasn't my fault because he turned up at my house this morning saying he was sorry....Blah blah im talking a complete load or BS your probably thinking now :lol BUT THEN he says 'I got you this'

He pulls out a plastic bad and i can see that theres another bag with water in there

I take a look and see he's brought a Coral Beauty! Not a great choice for my tank....And i wanted a black and white Clown

This thing is beautiful i've got to say but will he be okay in my tank a few months? I got the good news that when i move the tank downstaits i can upgrade to a 36x12x15 (28g i think). Will i be okay with him untill then? He's small ATM about 1.5"

Also i need a little help on upgrading, This is what i'll have

28g tank
1 clown
1 firefish
1 coral beauty
Cleaner Crew need to double the amount of everything i have bar the hermits
Another maxijet 1200
Bring LR up to 36lbs by doubling up

I'll leave my lighting as is until i need to replace bulbs and then get a 150w MH so it'll be a FOWLR for a few months
Will 60cm of light illuminate 90cm?
Sounds okay?

 

[Aquascaper]

Well there's not really a lot of choice, the Coral Beauty will have to be ok. At least the tank is run by a person who understands the needs of the fish and the potential hazards of keeping fish in tanks that are too small

I'm sure it will be fine at that size just keep an eye on things

 

[SkiFletch]

For the time being he'll be ok. As long as you can upgrade the tank within 6-12 months he shouldnt grow too large .

 

[Siamese Fighter05]

Good to hear, will diffently be inside the next few months, probably 4 being the absolute max hopefully sooner though.

Heres some Actnics only pics.

FTS

Firefish (Might come out wrong, isnt loading properly)

I've been trying to get piccys of the clown and coral beauty but they just won't stay still. The coral beauty is starting to show herself alot more now as at first she/he? hid behind the rocks but it comes out 80% of the time now

 

[Chac]

I uploaded a heap of pics of my livestock on to TFF with 1 exeption - My coral Beauty, I 'be had him for years & still cant get a good pic of him

Pm'd

 

[Siamese Fighter05]

I know what you mean, they never stay still )

Can anyone ID these?

Here's a pic of my big, ID'd by aquascaper as a bearded fireworm

 

[Aquascaper]

1st: Ventricaria ventricosa (Bubble Algae) - Bad
2nd: Caulerpa racemosa (Grape Caulerpa) - Good
3rd: Bryopsis pennata (Filamentous Algae) - Good

The 1st algae - To remove the Bubble algae use a needle and syringe to deflate the bubble as it contains spores which will spread round the tank if burst then remove the 'skin' from the rock.
The 2nd algae - With the Caulerpa, if it starts to go white it's turning sexual and needs to be removed otherwise it will dump excess nutrients along with it's spores into the tank, possibly causing a spike.
The 3rd algae - I'm not 100% on the ID but it's good stuff anyway

 

[Siamese Fighter05]

Thanks for the ID'ing Aqua, BTW loving your new siggy. Probably my favourite marine fish (Of the ones i know anyway )

Okay everyone time for an update with lots of outside the box of water action

I have been looking seriously into upgrading my nano to a 28g (Just another 30cm extra length on the current tank) and then putting this 16 as a sump/refuge. The idea on this is creating a home for lots of pods, which will inturn be used as a food for a mandarin goby.

*Gasps*

Okay, so basically this will give me a total water capacity of somewhere around 38g (Considering water overflow space from sump) I will have about 34lbs of LR in the display tank and at the back a hidden rubble pile as refuge for pods that are blown into the tank from the sump return.

There will be lots of rubble and macro for cover for the pods in the refuge and they will be sent back upto the tank via the pump. 10% of the pods will die from the impellors but they can inturn be eaten by my clown and whatever other fish swim out openly. I will buy around 1500 (3 bottles) of tigger pods from online to start off along with the other pods in my tank. Give them 6months to multiply even more.

Then it's simply looking for a healthy mandarin and letting him eat all day on pods. I can top up my pod supply every few months with a bottle of pods although i think there will probably be enough to sustain him out of the refuge. I know lots of people will be against this idea but there are lots of success stories of people keeping this fish in nano's with monthly pod top ups and refuge's.

I've been discussing this with a respected member of the forum (No names) and they think that i have a chance of pulling this off. Of course if things seem to be going bad then i will take him back to the LFS and hope he ends up in a 125 gallon tank with lots of LR. This may not even happen as you'll find out if you read on.....

Wednesday we are picking up the laminate flooring for the dining room. Hopefully one of my mum's mates will be able to fit that down for us as he's good with this kind of stuff. Should have it down anytime inside the next 2weeks if he can do it and when. That means that the room is fully complete and i can move the nano downstairs.

The new plan is that we are going to finish decorating this house so it's up-to-date and then move out and into a new house. It will probably take about 1 year to get this house fully done up with a kitchen and so on.

Of course moving the nano again is going to be a nightmare especially if i will have corals and it will be to a different house let alone down the stairs

The good news is that new houses have outside taps. This means that i can set up the the RO Unit with the more reliable fittings and not have to worry about leaking. The bad news is that new houses are built with water meters meaning that it would cost too much to make my own RO water even on such a small tank.

The only substitute i can think of is going to the LFS and buying their RO water At 45p a gallon it's not too bad but in the long run it would kill me when,i know i have the stuff to make my own water except i have a water meter. Grrrrrr

This woud mean i'd probably have to downsize the size of my tank to a 10g to be able to buy LFS water consistantly

That would wipe any change of the 28 out of view and also any other tank upgrade in 2year + future.
I'm not 100% sure the house would have a water meter although i'd say it's high 90's that it will. No way would i be allowed to change it back to a quarterly rate and diffently not making water on the meter.

If this is the case, i will probably take my nano down and sell off all LR & livestock but keep the current equipment for my future 10g. 96w on a 10g. I'd be luvin it

I don't want to lose this clown though as he has such a personality it's unreal :wow:

Sadly my Coral Beauty has died (Kind of p***e off at my mate for buying this fish for my tank now *sigh*)
When trying to get him out of my tank and in to the QT i knocked down most of my rocks and i can't put them back properly
I will leave them as is for now as they are higher up and it lets me get more surface agitation

Lovely fish died, i just wished i had of acted faster into getting him in QT and medicating

Any thoughts on all of this?

Dan