Nano-Reef.com » Featured Reef Profiles » November 2003 Gilman
Gilman
Congratulations to Gilman for earning the tank of the month award for November. His nano reef is an outstanding example of what keeping hands off of your Nano Reef and dedication to this hobby can bring. Information and photographs of his Minibow Nano Reef are below, direct from the man himself.
7 Gallon AGA Minibow
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Wow! Nano Reef of the month! Very cool indeed, and I am now totally consumed with Nano Reef glory. With the hobby becoming as popular as it has in the last year, there are ALOT of great looking tanks out there so this truly is cool to have been chosen by Chris Marks to have our tank featured on Nano-Reef.com. Hard to believe our tank is following an act like JDSabins masterpiece. Thank you.
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In the beginning.....
When I started out purchasing supplies to create our little reef, I had no
idea how important this hobby would end up becoming to me. Now, well over
a year later, I have the scientific name of many corals burnt forever into
my memory, and Liza (my girlfriend and auto topoff) can also resite many
of them off of the top of her head as well. At the Fish Store, I am familiar
with the Saltwater side now, which is the side of the Fish Store that I avoided
for YEARS since I thought keeping anything in Salt Water was really difficult.
It is really great knowing about what I used to be leary/scared of.
So, one day I am surfing the net, (I don't even remember what I was looking for) and I stumble upon a page that someone nicknamed "Contempo Reefs" had setup that showcased their Minibow Nano Reef. I instantly knew I needed something like that. Strike that, I knew I needed THAT! It just stunned me that someone could keep a tank that was that small, colorful, and nice looking. I was instantly enamered with the lines of the Minibow, and made it a goal immediately to begin figuring out exactly how get one myself. Thankfully, it didn't take too much convincing to get Liza to back the idea either, and the tank has made a great addition to our bedroom. We still both stare at it on a regular basis, and we still can't believe how far it has come since the beginning.
Early Beginnings
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Nano Reef Theory 101
In my quest for Nano Reef Nirvana, I have chosen the lazy reefer or (Hands
Off) path to reefing. This is mainly due to the fact that I guess I am lazy
when it comes it reefing. This system has worked well for me however, and
I promote the Hands Off theory as much as possible. Keep in mind that we
are not really keeping anything in our little reef that would be considered
overly difficult in the hobby. The Hands Off theory basically consists of
testing when you start the tank followed by no more testing once the tank
has been running for about a month or so. Sure, I own the CA, Alk, PH, Nit,
Amm, and refractometer test kits, but they are all collecting dust in our
Fish Cabinet. I actually do occasionaly use the refractometer to make sure
that the Specific Gravity is in the zone (1.025 preferably), and I regularly
check the temperature to make sure its around 80-82. During the summer months
it can get up to 84 with no undesireable effects. The reason I don't really
need to test for specific gravity much is because Our LFS has been very reliable
with the Specific Gravity of premixed salt water.
Inhabitants
Corals
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The Website Projects
Since I do alot of web design, when I setup our Minibow Nano Reef,
I made it a goal to create a website that would help others with Minibow Setup
by showing
how I created mine. I found that when I was looking for information on setup,
it wasn't really all that easy to come by, and I hadn't found Nano-Reef.com
yet. Well I did end up creating that website and it has a Getting
Setup section
that explains how I originally set the tank up, and also has a detailed section
dedicated to our current maintenance routines. There are also almost 500
photos of our Minibow Nano Reef dating back to when there was
just sand in the tank. If you go to the Nano Photos section and search for
Live Rock,
you will see........ I have also created a website dedicated to Minibow Websites
at Minibow.com.
There are currently 21 active Minibow Websites listed there, and it is constantly
growing. The Minibow Gang has definitely been getting stronger over time.
Some Inhabitant Photos
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Daily Routine (Taken from www.oc-creative.com/reef)
Liza is in charge of daily freshwater topoffs gaining her the friendly nickname
of "auto topoff unit" which she has definitely earned over the
months since our Nano has been setup. We use RO water that we purchase by
the gallon at our Local Fish Store for 40cents/Gallon.
Weekly Routine (Taken from www.oc-creative.com/reef)
Every week I perform a 1 gallon Saltwater change on the tank using premixed
Saltwater that we purchase by the gallon at our Local Fish Store. Our Local
Fish Store mixes their RO/DI water with Tropic Marin salt mix, and I would
recommend this salt to others since it has worked so well in our tank. Our
salt is mixed to a specific gravity of 1.024. When removing the 1 gallon
of water from the tank, I vacuum out Planaria, Coralline eating Starfish,
and excess deitrous if it is obvious. The vacuum I made is simply a piece
of Rigid Airline Tubing and a piece of regular Airline Tubing as a small
aquarium vacuum. The rigid Airline Tubing is great for vacuuming planaria
from rocks. (YES WE HAVE FLATWORMS!!) I am a bit scared to try flatworm exit.
Maybe one day.
To get the replacement water closer to the tank temperature, I just put the gallon container in a sink with some hot water in it. After I am done with the tank vacuuming, the water temperature has usually come up nicely in the gallon container.
Also, weekly we decide if anything needs pruning. Corals and Macroalgae need pruning in such a small environment. Xenia for instance is almost invasive by nature since it grows so quickly and needs to be pruned regularly so it will not take over neighboring corals. If Liza is around, I always ask her very nicely to hold the light up for me when pruning the tank or moving corals. I also remind her every time she holds my life in her hands.
Feeding Routines (Taken from www.oc-creative.com/reef)
We feed our Clownfish a couple times a day with small food pellets (not sure
on the maker) and also the red type of frozen Formula One every few days to
switch it up. We feed a small pinch of the Frozen Formula One food directly
into the tank and it gets around. We purchase the Frozen Formula One as a flat
piece in a bag so it is easy to pinch off small amounts. We received the small
food pellets in a foil pouch with no name or logos from a local reefer. The
Clown seems to like the Formula One much better than the pellets.
Our Squamosa Clam gets fed live Phytoplankton that we purchased from Marine Depot. Some local fish stores stock live Phytoplankton, but ours doesn't. I dose approximately 3ml of live Phytoplankton twice weekly.
Our Bubble Tip Anenome gets fed once a week or so a small piece of seafood. So far we have fed shrimp, scallops, and Formula One. It seems to eat them all, but spits out the shrimp pieces after many hours. It does not spit out the scallops or formula one.
More Inhabitant Photos
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Onward and forward....
Well it's now almost a year and a half later, Liza and I have now met a bunch
of local reefers (where we have gotten most of our corals) and have found
that the reefing community is full of really cool people. I also have made
many online friends on Nano-Reef.com and in Nano Reef chat, in addition to
the Minibow Forum on our website as well. Some of these folks are local,
some a world apart. In the real world, I have yet to meet a reefer face to
face that I didn't like. Liza and I periodically go on local reef adventures
and take photos of Local Reefers mostly larger reef systems (see friends
tanks section on our site). I don't believe that I will ever keep one of
these larger systems, unless my life becomes alot less busy. I have been
asked on many occasions when I will "upgrade" our tank, and get
something larger. I am honestly quite happy with our tank, and what we have
accomplished in such a small volume of water.
In conclusion, I am looking forward to our Minibow Nano Reef doing well growing for years to come, and now I can't imagine not keeping a Nano Reef no matter where life takes me.
Good luck and happy reefing,
Gil
ps. A little background on my aquarium experience in case anyone cares.... For years (since I was a child) I have kept freshwater aquariums, and we currently keep a 44gallon FW pentagon tank with a breeding pair of Angelfish, and a 350 gallon pond (nano pond) that has a bunch of 3rd generation goldfish and lots of pond plants in it.
Gil Mora
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