12 Gal. Nano Project - Page 5

**Phurst** · 11-11-2007, 04:03 PM

Wow, thanks for the compliments!

Yeah, about 3 monts is what it's been. I had the advantage of taking already cycled LR out of the sump of my 120 and combining it with some base rock, so I saved some time in that there wasn't much of a cycle. A lot of people will tell you a nano isn't the best way to go for a first marine tank. They're right in all the reasons they give. A large tank is more forgiving, and allows for more livestock, but it's my experience that nano's can be very successful first tanks for people. Particularly if they have been a successful in keeping freshwater tanks in the past. Nano's require attention to detail, and constant monitoring of water quality, but it's certainly doable. Being an engineer is probably a huge help here

The best general advice I can give is to go slow, keep on top of testing your water, keep up the regular water changes, don't be affraid to ask questions (here or elsewhere), and don't be affraid to fail. Everyone has setbacks (wheather they admit it or not), it's a part of te hobby, but don't let them discourage you.

I'll also say that you are probably pretty close to fully stocked as far as fishies and inverts go. I'd say add a few snails and call it a day. Corals add very littel to the bio load, so don't worry about that too much.

What are you planning to stock as far as corals? A "zoa garden" or somthing else? I don't know if there's one in your area, but if there is, I'd strongl suggest joing a local reefing club. My local club has been a great source of corals for this tank. If you don't have a local club, and the LFS doesn't stock what you want, try asking them to order it for you. If they can't, there are a ton of great mail order companies. Most corals can be shipped by mail with no problem. you'll pay an arm and a leg in shipping usualy, but that's the price you pay I guess.

it sounds like you are off to a great start. Feel free to ask any questions you like either in this thread, or on this site. You should start a tank build thread. The folks here are great, and TR is free of a lot of the BS you'll run into at some of the other forums.

Thanks again for checking out the thread, I'm glad you enjoyed it!

**Phurst** · 11-11-2007, 04:06 PM

Just finished moving the tank into it's final location. The move seems to have gone fine, but everything is closed up and angry at the moment. I drained 5 gallons to move it and just ended up turning it into a water change. Everything should perk back up in a bit. It's about time for some updated pics. My wife gets mad when i take the camera to work though, because it's usualy a few days before I remember to bring it back

**CarmieJo** · 11-11-2007, 06:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FenMuskieHunter

Has this tank really only taken 3 months to get this far?

I am completely new to marine aquatics but the collection of freshwater tanks in the house at the same time crept up to three at one point.

I have been lucky enough to dive in Indonesia, Malaysia & The Canary Islands & recently got back into SCUBA diving so I thought I'd have a dabble and got myself a Biocube 14 a few weeks ago. The original goal was to do a small attractive freshwater species tank - not too complicated.

However, I was encouraged that with the Biocube, a reef tank was manageable. I was determined to be progressive with it and sensible. I've been checking on the Internet and far from looking natural, so many reef projects seem to be a smorgasboard of different things stuck next to each other with little resemblence to what lives next to each other in the Ocean.

Having found this thread I am so impressed with what you have created. I need to read it over a few more times to see if it is something that I can get close to with my project. It would really impress the wife who was very sceptical seeing another tank appear at the house, having waved goodbye to the last freshwater tanks about 4 years ago.

Over the last 3 weeks, I have cycled the tank with 15 pounds of live Fiji rock and set it up with with lots of intracate nooks crannies and overhangs, set up a reasonably deep live sand bed with 20lb of CaribSea live Aragonite & been reading everything I can get my hands on to learn up on in books from Amazon and trawling the web the subject.

Being an engineer by trade and enjoying details, I have been testing and controlling SHG (very accurately), monitoring temperature, PH & alkalinity Nitrate, Ammonia & gently adding Calcium from a starting point of 300ppm.

Now for the confession section...the Reef shop is less than 2 miles from my house so in 5 trips...

1st trip. Tank, stand and accessories;

2nd. Live Rock, Water & Sand

3nd trip for Livestock additions:-
Small Catalina Goby;
5 Blue legged Hermit crabs;
Skunk Cleaner shrimp;

4th trip.
Yellow Feather Duster
Added two corals - I forget the type of both but one of which I need to find a method of securing better to the live rock without disrupting the tank inmates.

5th & latest trip to the Aquatics shop for some salt yesterday resulted in:-
Small False Percula Clownfish;
(Tiny) Sexy shrimp;

Amazon book collection (in addition to various related Diving books & guides I already own) has become :-
Reef Aquarium Fishes - Scott W. Michael
The Nano-Reef Handbook - CR Brightwell
Natural Reef Aquariums - John H Tullock
Oceanic Wilderness - Roger Steene (exceptionally good book)

We are heading out for a few days in the FL Keys next week when I hope I can get in a couple of dives, hopefully avoiding too many more ideas.

I've looked at the local aquatics shop and the availability of Zoanthids doesn't come close to what you have in your tank. Any advice to offer towards my own project, what to watch and be careful of would be gratefully recieved - so impressed with your tank. I did start out with the all the very best of intentions in mind but you know how these things quickly get out of hand...

Sorry if I've dived in on this post for beginner advice but your project tank seems a fantastic target to aim for.

Thanks.

to TR! We love pictures. <hint, hint>

FenMuskieHunter · 11-12-2007, 09:41 PM

Thanks. I'll have a go and see what the pictures turn out like. Could do with some advice on better securing a coral. It's balanced a bit precariously on top of the LR at the moment. Wondered if there are any techniques I can employ? It's already toppled off a couple of times...

**Phurst** · 11-12-2007, 09:51 PM

Do you know what kind of coral it is? Generally speaking, cyanoacrilate based super glue gel is good for securing corals. It does depend on the type of coral, of course.

FenMuskieHunter · 11-14-2007, 09:10 PM

Credit where credit is due - tank looks great. I'll try posting a few photos of my creation. You might be able to identify the 2 corals for me...!

Applying superglue sounds a bit scary - Do you have to dry the rock or any other recommendations to avoid risk of contamination??

Hope the photos appear OK - originals before I shrunk them looked pretty good.

BioCube-14.jpg

Catalina-Goby.jpg

Sexy-Shrimp.jpg

Skunk-Cleaner-Shrimp.jpg

**Phurst** · 11-14-2007, 09:26 PM

LOL, love the pic of the sexy shrimp, and that goby is AWESOME! I can't see to well in the top pic. Can you either post a bigger pic, or closeups of the corals?

The rock work looks nice and natural, and there's a good amount or coraline on there already.

As far as the super glue goes, it's perfectly safe as long as it's cyanoacrilate glue (most superglues are). I'd strongly recommend the 'gel' variety instead of the liquid. Reefers use it ALL the time. It instantly activates when the water hits it, so there's no contamination. Take out whatever you're gluing, dab it dry (as best you can, just so there's no standing water), apply plenty of glue, and stick it in place. Try to get it in place as quickly as possible as a skin will form immediately and the glue will start to cure. Hold it in place about 30 seconds and check to see if it's secure. There are some corals that you can't glue, so we should try to ID what you have first. Trying won't hurt them, some just won't stick.

The tank is looking really good, especially for a first tank!

FenMuskieHunter · 11-14-2007, 11:35 PM

The Catalina Goby is good. They said it wasn't so common to get in every week. He/she's livened up a bit more since the Clown joined in the competition for food - definitely seemed a little bit put out.

I've had some freshwater tanks before a few years ago now - this is the first attempt at a marine. Confess I did make a little cardboard model mock up of the tank before I went down and fiddled around with the live rock they had. Bit sad...

Don't know if this zoomed in picture will help the identification of the two Corals any better. The right hand one looks really good under the moonlight LED's. I knew I should have asked them to write them down at the shop. They have been pretty helpful though.

See if you can make anything better out of this...

Corals.jpg

**Phurst** · 11-15-2007, 07:34 AM

Hmm, the one on the right has pretty large polyps. it looks like it could be a cup coral (turbaneria) or possibly a gonipora. I hope it's not a goni, they don't usualy live very long. The one on the left, is that the one the sexy shrimp is walking on in the picture above? if so, it looks like some kins of star polyp. Which one are you having trouble attaching?

lReef lKeeper · 11-15-2007, 06:27 PM

the one on the right ... looks like a Galaxea to me. do you see long sweeper tentacles after the lights go out ??

**Phurst** · 11-15-2007, 06:41 PM

So, I kept going back and forth with myself in my head about how to build the sump, and when I would get it done. I decided to bite the bullet and have one of our awesome LFSs build it for me. It's a 15 gallon tank with a large wall inside to hold back the DSB, a bubble trap, and an egg crate grate to hold the cheato on it's side of the fuge. It should be done early next week

lReef lKeeper · 11-15-2007, 08:59 PM

sweet !! i can not wait to see this bad boy up and running.

**CarmieJo** · 11-16-2007, 12:05 AM

That sounds great!

FenMuskieHunter · 12-06-2007, 10:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lReef lKeeper

the one on the right ... looks like a Galaxea to me. do you see long sweeper tentacles after the lights go out ??

Yeah the tentacles are about an inch - inch & a half - couldn't believe it when I first saw them - amazing! That's the coral the Sexy shrimp has taken residence on. Both the corals are balanced fairly precariously.

I have also had one or two things to start to worry about... I have started getting blooms of brown/purple algae all over the place and filament algae growing on the LR - this week accompanied by one or two bubbles forming on the rocks. I've been cleaning the glass off and stirring up the sand where it's formed. Haven't tested for phosphate. I have only been feeding frozen brine shrimp and apart from when I had to let my neighbour look after the tank for four days have been keeping the feed sparingly enough so the fish and shrimp clear most of it up.

I actually haven't lost any livestock but my Catalinia Goby seems to start to break out in white spot but this it seems to settle down again a couple of days after a water change. In my freshwater experience, I never had much success treating white spot effectively without losing the fish in question.

Do I need to step up