I've been lurking here for the past year or so. I've spent a lot of time researching salt/reef tanks with an eye on a 120 gallon soon.
In the mean time I thought it would be neat to have a little tank in the kitchen to keep me and my family company, since we spend a lot of time there.
My plans are to have a clown fish and a small goby, as well as a clean-up crew (snails hermit crabs and a brittle star). Also wouls like some ricordia, mushrooms and maybe a hammer coral.
So today I actually spent money @ the LFS that I've been loitering at for the past year. I purchased the tank, as well as live sand and salt. Also, i bought a refractometer, and Spectrapure DI unit to attach to my existing RO Drinking water system. (currently only makes 9 GPD, but will soon upgrade it to 35GPD). I hooked the in line to the line that goes to my ice maker, hope this is alright.
Hope to soon make some salty RO/DI water, add live sand and live rock, and get this party started!
BTW, This site is way cool, and I've learned a lot from the podcasts and forums. Thanks to Rob and everyone else!
auto-topoff can be achieved via dosing pumps. No drilling needed. however the float system has to be at the main water hight, ether that or in a sump. i dont know what your 14gal looks like, so i cant comment on the design, hence the best place to put it, but that would be my suggestion. On small tanks you can really get away with Ro top-off & manually add pre-mix salt or NSW when needed. If your talking large scale, a conductivity probe is needed so your dosing pumps can add both fresh water & salt to create your ideal parameters.
I'd like to throw another question out there. As stated above, i would like to put a clownfish in my BioCube, most likely an Ocellaris. I was thinking about an anemone. I'm considering a BTA because I've heard they are easier to keep and a wide variety of clowns will host in captivity.
My Questions:
1. First off, are the PC lights enough.
2. Is this tank (14g) too small.
3. What are the chances that the Ocellaris will host. I've heard that they are a bit fussy about who they host with.
4. If the Ocellaris is not a good choice, what other clowns would you recommend. I'm hopeing for small and hardy. (I also think the skunks are cool, but i'm not sure it will be Nemo enough for my two young girls.)
Hmm...14g with a BTA. I can tell you it's not recommended.I have a Rose BTA in a 24g.An established,stable 24g.It was suggested the larger the tank,the better.
My ocellaris in my 55g won't go near an anemone,or at least haven't yet.
My Tomato clown took to an anemone in 1 day,but they get way to big for a 14g.
Tank raised or not seems to make no difference,since all my clowns are tank raised.
I'm afraid the deck is stacked against ya on this venture.Maybe someone,somewhere, had made it happen.I just know I wouldn't try it.
Well, After looking at the tangled mass of electrical cords stuffed behind the biocube as it sat on my kitchen counter, I envisioned fire and electrocution in my near future.
Thus, the tank goes in the office next to the computer. I'm now doing a 24 leak test. The trickely water sound I hear as i type this is actually quite soothing.
Also, I think I figured out how to attach pictures. Observe the proud owner and what I thought was a cool pic of my heater under the moon lights. (hopefully the contents of my tank will be much more interesting in the near future).
I agree with Larry. My BTA started out about the size of a bagel and now it is bigger than a dinner plate. Lots of people's clowns host other things like frogspawn, mushrooms, xenia that might be better suited to your nano. I think that if a clown wants to host it will take what is available. My maroon clown was hosting a cleft in my LR before I got the BTA.
Thanks Larry and CarmieJo for the advice Re: the anemone. Looks like I'll have to wait until I get the larger tank.
Tonight put sand and RO/DI Saltwater in my tank. I heard about a method of circumventing the sandstorm, and I thought I'd try it. It involves putting the sand in a dry tank, then covering it with plastic bags, then a plate with a bowl on it. The water is poured slowly into the bowl. When the water rises, all of this can be removed slowly.
I'd say that it worked somewhat. I ended up with more of a "tropical sandstorm" than a "sand hurricane."
Tonight I put in 15 lbs of Tonga LR. The lady at the LFS was very helpful in helping me pick out some nice, colorful pieces. In fact she stayed 20 minutes after the store closed to help me. After puttting thr LR in, i saw a bristle worm poking his head out of a hole, but haven't seen him since.
A few hours after placing the LR, I checked my water parameters for the first time. In retrospect, I should have checked them before hand, because the Ammonia is already up. I'm using the Marineland (AKA Instant Ocean) test kits... (the jury is still out on whether I like them or not.)
1. I'm used to using my freshwater test kits that read NH3/NH4, NO2, NO3 in ppm not mg/l. Does anyone know a conversion?
2. I'm surprised that I'm reading any NH3/NH4 and NO2 so soon. I guess i did add live sand yesterday, maybe that had some dead stuff in it.
3. I was also surprised by the high Phosphate reading. As stated before, we have an existing RO drinking water system to which added a DI unit. The TDS reading on the DI is 10 in and 0 out. Could I have brought some phosphate in on my LR?
V-series Productions 
to TR.
icon under their name to add to their reputation. 
