The nano adventure - closing down

[priscacara]

Introduction:- The main tank is going nicely so decided it was time to have a go at a nano tank after seeing all the nice ones on the forums. Plan is for bright zoas and acans for corals and coral goby, blenny (bicolor maybe) and a banded coral shrimp for inhabitants. Not sure if I will get 2mm coral sand or marble chips for the bottom

System Type: Mixed Reef

Strike up Date: Commencement of plans: 6/11/12

Display Tank: 24x12x12 , around 60L

Display Lighting: Temporary 35w halogen, PAR38 led in a few weeks.

System Water: Natural salt water

Skimmer: Nil

Display Water circulation:At present Aquaone hob 750lph filter, changing to an Aquaclear when possible and a small circ pump.

Return Pump: As above

Evaporation Top Up: Manual

Chemical Support: Nil

The beast (yeah ok its a small beast!).

[culturedreef]

I like the package you have behind the tank, you have to much time on your hands. I am just jealous of the time you can spend on reefing and you also have a large fresh water setup. Good luck with the nano.

[SeaCucumber]

How much more rock will be added? Love it how it's just casually placed on ur kitchen bench ! What corals are you planning to keep in that little box of tricks ?

[saltymike]

Good stuff!!

Will be following this one mate.

Mike.

[priscacara]

Tx for the comments, yep way too much time on my hands but the tanks keep me out of trouble (mostly!) and never get tired of looking at them. The package I'm going to use as a design aid although dosing may have to be watched carefully r I never know what the scape will look like the next day.

The rock in there is just for the cycle most likely keep the large bit at the left, I want a lot of open sand to sit corals on. I would like to make a little archway but in a tank this size it would have to be little, mostly a place for a shrimp to hide out if it needs to. Acans and zoas for the most part coral wise although I would like to have a try at a sun coral, I figure it will be easy enough to target feed in this tank and they do look stunning. For fish a coral goby and a blenny are the only 2 small fish that come to mind as well as a banded shrimp.

Just noticed on one of the pieces of rock what look to be some palys starting to come out, if they are a nice color I might leave them.

[priscacara]

Tx! Zoas, acans for the most part. I would love to get two par38's but at close enough to $100 each I wont be its just too expensive at the moment. Lol I could make a stand and use my 120W AMD I have spare but that might be just a bit too much light for them. This tank is sort of a filler between my 400L and the big tank I have in the planning stages so unfortunately I can't justify spending too much money....................that may change though as I do want this tank to look good and be healthy for however long it runs for.

[Dawson84]

Love having a small tank and monster carnt wait to see the progress on this lil beauty

[priscacara]

Time for a bit of an update. I got the funds for the par38 and should have it running by end of the week, next pay day for the hob aquaclear 50 and 50w Hydor Theo heater for inside the hob as suggested by BBB .
I have a few morphs in the tank but under the halogen they really don't show any color, that will change soon though. I couldn't think of any fish to get that wouldn't get too big for the tank so got 2 nice yellow coral gobies............see if I can get a pic of them once they settle in.

[new nano]

Have you thought about doing a DIY led fixture? Are you going to use one or two par 38s? I'm glad I did my LED. Especially because it is dimmable. I went way overboard with what I needed so I can just dim either colour to get a colour I am happy with.

[priscacara]

I went for the coral flare par38 bulb (getting a second) and the clamp set to go with it. The colors are 5 royal blue, 3 neutral white, 2 true violet, 1 deep red, 1 turquoise. I'm hopeless at diy so was better to buy everything ready to go .

I asked Ben at Age of Aquariums about the hob aquaclears and he said both would fit at the short side where I have the aquaone hob at the moment. The cost of the 50 and 70 versions wasn't too different so will take your advice and go with the 70.

Got the first inhabitants, 2 coral gobies. Hope they continue to play nice.


Full shot showing the lighting. I might have to lower it a little but wanted to see how it looked.


A better fts shot of whats in it

[Kransky]

Looking good pal,
I might have to do a similar setup with the spare tank i have
I might put mine in the office next to me as im on the bloody computer most of the time

Col.

[priscacara]

The bulbs are on special till end of the month so had to get the second.

[priscacara]

Couple of things added so time for an update.
Left hand side


Middle shot


FTS 26 nov

[Leroy-Riding]

where did you get the light from?

[SeaCucumber]

Slight chubby in my pants ....

Give us ur info ! How much water changes are you doing ? And also how blue dose that light go ?

[ezza1337]

This is so interesting! I think the light system you have would work well for what I'm trying with a nano tank. I'll keep following this and watch out for PAR38s!

[priscacara]

PM's sent regarding the par38s.

[priscacara]

Thanks for the comments ppl!

The tank being so new it is going through the usual cycle with a bit of diatoms and algae but easy to keep on top of ............................lol still not used to any algae in a tank being a good thing. I have been changing 2 liters every second day rather than a weekly change, not sure if this will be detrimental but can't see how it would be. Temp lately is a bit high at 26C but then again we are getting warmer weather so no surprise I guess, also Aquaone heaters are decent but not the most accurate in my experience with freshies (heading for 39C today and even at 30 inside the tank is still at 26). Top up is manual and surprisingly I top up more in the nano than the main tank, then again a lot more surface movement in the nano.

The lights are supposedly dimmable but the colors are set so the pics are pretty much true to life, I use auto white balance on the camera with level adjustment and sharpness in Photoshop. The spread of light is very good with slight shadow at the end of the tank so getting the second bulb.

New toys for next week, the second bulb as well as a Tunze nano stream 6015 circ pump.

[priscacara]

Just got my second par38 but will take shots of it this evening. Meanwhile here is a snap of the smallest goby perched watching what I'm doing. I started giving them lobster eggs a few days back and this one is addicted to them and follows me all round the tank just in case I have some.

[priscacara]

Its the frozen ones by Ocean Nutrition that I got from the lfs.

The tank with the 2 par38's up and running.

[priscacara]

Well things were going just a bit too smoothly, I now have a nice load of what I'm assuming is cyano on the bottom of the tank. There was a bit of algae forming the past 2 weeks but with the second lamp it went into overdrive!

I have no readable phosphate , nitrates barely register so very low (tests done at home and 2 x lfs) so I am assuming its the excess light. The tank lights are on for between 8 and 9 hours so I will cut that back to 7 and see what happens. The tank is still very new of course so might just be part of the ongoing cycle. I change the floss in the hob filter daily and each morning it does have a fair bit of gunk in it, enough to turn it a light brown so its taking some [censored] out for sure. Was going to take a pic of the algae but we have all seen it before

[Haratu]

I am loving this tank, great to see one in a place where it is appreciated rather than hidden in a corner.

By now the phosphate and nitrate is building in the sand bed, perhaps the cyano is feasting on that. normal water testing only tests the water column, not the sand bed. It will probably settle if you suction the cyano and wait for the bacteria colonies in the bed to grow to meet demand.

[priscacara]

Glad your liking it, I have always had a tank there so when I moved to marines I just had to get one. I'm home most of the day and pass by it all the time so the fish always get used to me quickly and there is always something to see. I have gone to make a cuppa and spent 20 minutes just watching fish (and now corals) then having to microwave the cuppa :-)

Lol thanks I hadn't even thought of anything being in the substrate I just plain forgot about it. It is a very new tank so even though I went through cycling with the main tank the nano gets there faster and it is more obvious at times.

[Ilona]

Looking good, makes me want to start up a nano but i think my husband would kill me. Even the 3 year old begging him for a seahorse tank couldn't sway him

[priscacara]

Tx Ilona, if the seahorse tank couldn't do the trick nope you don't have a chance :-)

[saltymike]

Hi mate,

How's the algae issue going? Any update for Xmas?

Mike

[priscacara]

Hi Mike, bit overdue for an update . Well, the acans were dying so I took them out and put them back into the main tank but I lost the smaller one with green centers, most likely because I didn't target feed them. The red one is doing fine back in the mt now. I added in some frags of zoas and 1 small acro to see how it goes. New inhabitant is a nice little coral banded shrimp that has made itself well and truly at home and will take mysis readily from the turkey baster, got a surprise when i was cleaning the glass today when it came over and sat on my hand. The algae problem as expected is retreating now that the tank is a bit older, there is still some there but nowhere near as bad as it was.

Ok the interesting bits....................

The cbs, couldn't quite get it to focus but not that bad a shot.


End on shot.


Side shot showing a nice shroom shaped morph.


The fts.

[kevinicus]

I really like your layout, well done

[saltymike]

Merry Xmas mate!!!

Dang shame on the Acan bro, I'm glad the remaining is pulling through.

Are you still using the the 2 par38's or did you go back to one to help with the diatoms?

Those little orange coral gobies look amazing, such a vibrant colour.

[priscacara]

Hope everyone had a good xmas!

Tx kevinicus, I'm trying not to overcrowd the tank but knowing me I will end up with more rocks :-).

Tx Mike , the gobies are having a bit of a squabble lately with the bigger one harassing the smaller one. Was hoping they would be fine together but looks like one of them might be having a change of scenery to the main tank if it keeps going. Nothing in the mt that should cause any problems to it apart from the water flow, lol it will need muscles to swim never mind fight!