My Minibow7, New Pics 01/27

[Splumph]

Hello everybody.

 

I've decided to use my 100th post (been driving me nuts not being able to respond all day, lol) to start my tank thread.

 

First a little about me. I've been in the FW hobby for around 15 years, It started with a friend of mine giving me a tank that was in the back yard of the house she was moving into. It was a nice tank, a 58 gallon oceanic, and it has had quite a few evolutions (went from being a FW mess of fish to currently housing my giant gourami) I was always skittish about SW because of the price, and I wasn't terribly impressed with FOWLR tanks anyways, sure the fish were pretty, but it seemed a hassle. Then I started reading about corals and everything, and was very intrigued.

 

The tank I am setting up is a 7 gallon minibow which was a beta tank for a little while, then a tetra tank, then a planted...then sat on a shelf empty for a while, and now will be reborn as my first reef tank I had 7 lbs of dry live rock seeding in a bucket for 3 weeks with a pound of cured rock, before building my shelf, setting this tank up, and filling it with water. Now it looks like this:

 

 

It is lit by a DIY LED array (yup, I'm one of the cult members)

I tested my params today and this is what they look like:

 

Ammonia 0.25

Nitrite 0.25

PH 8.0

Nitrate 80

SG 1.025 @ 81 degrees.

 

The nitrate actually looks between 80-120 I'm not too worried about it right now because the only life in the tank is tons of pods and some algae. I don't think the rock is completely seeded yet, so I'm just taking my time, watching, and seeing what happens. I actually got some diatoms last week, but they went away, I don't think the tank is very stable yet. Right now equipment wise, it has a whisper submersible 100w heater, and a Koralia Nano. I plan to add an AC70 fuge to it before adding coral. The heater doesn't seem to keep the water at a constant temp, so it will be replaced as well.

 

The reason I call this a tale of two minibows is because this is the next project down the pipe:

 

 

It was one that I gave to a friend of mine (I paid 6$ for it!) who moved out of his house and left it with his sister...it ended up being used to keep a gate closed, after it got broke in the garage...I was pretty ticked off about it, and so was he when he found out...ah well...not sure what I'm gonna do with it as far as the repair goes, but then again, thats for another day.

 

Let the comments and opinions fly

[travisurfer]

looks like a nice start

[Splumph]

I'm starting to get GHA all over the place, so I guess it's time to get a CUC, any suggestions? My wife wants a hermit, so I am looking for one that will hopefully stay pretty small. I was thinking of doing a water change to lower the nitrates as well. I guess the tank is pretty healthy considering there are alot of pods, looks like my tank has lice, lol.

[Splumph]

Methinks it's CuC time. All my params are good except nitrate (40) so I think I am going to do a water change. I placed an order for a clean up creak and chaeto on reef cleaners, so I should be getting those next week. Ordered some ceriths, periwinkles, and nerite snails, don't think I am going to put any hermits in this one...just don't want to deal with any avoidable problems in my first tank

 

[Whacked]

Looking good

 

As far as hermits, they have been described to me (this website actually) as being the couch-potato of the CUC.

Yea they can be pretty cool but dont do much.

If you really want one, get a red-leg. The blue legs tend to be more aggressive.

I am down to 1 blue leg hermit after buying 4 ea of the blues & reds. The blues fought each other and my 6-line wrasse thought the red-legs was sushi.

[bustaphoto]

Ya I regret keeping hermits in my 14 gal so when I set up my 2.5 I only got a ton of snails, Dwarf Ceriths I believe about 20 of them LOL!! my new tank sees absolutely no algae and no bullies either.

[Splumph]

Not much to update, got a ton of cyano, and i'm suspecting phosphates...I won't be able to test until I can get A kit this weekend. The water I buy has a TDS of 8. Nitrates are at 10ppm, no nittrite or ammonia. The cyano makes my rock look like its pearling (bubbling) and grows back real quick. Oddly enough, the majority of the chaeto died off shortly after adding it, but I still have a few strands that are growing. Tank looks aweome...right after I scrub the rocks, then 2 days later its all red and green again

 

In a few days I should have my RO system, so I won't have to get bottles from the local machine.

[RedMan25xl]

so did you go buy a kit and have some fun over the weekend?

[Splumph]

Should have said next weekend, lol, I get paid Friday. I've been syphoning out long strands of cyano..guess that's fun

[Splumph]

I just got my RO system set up, and it is putting out water with 15 tds...the water I get from the machine up the street gives me 7-9. Is this an acceptable level? or should i consider getting a DI addon. If getting the addon, should I get a refillable canister, or an inline addon (i think theyre disposable and cost like 20$)

[East1]

Looking good

 

As far as hermits, they have been described to me (this website actually) as being the couch-potato of the CUC.

Yea they can be pretty cool but dont do much.

If you really want one, get a red-leg. The blue legs tend to be more aggressive.

I am down to 1 blue leg hermit after buying 4 ea of the blues & reds. The blues fought each other and my 6-line wrasse thought the red-legs was sushi.

i actually find hermits to be the best addition for my CUC

got about 8 or 9 striped leg hermits, i think a relative or something of Clibanarius sp. off the beach

and 1 electric blue hermit from the lfs, whenever i add a rock of hair algae(yes i do that, to feed the angel) they go nuts and spend the day cleaning it off, and keep red algae (not cyano, like red diatoms) off my live rock

also eat uneaten mysis off the sandbed and keep it clean

 

ahh the minibow

my old 7 was the start of my SW hobby, good luck with it!

check this place: http://www.oc-creative.com/reef/forum

its a forum about the minibow 7, helped me alot before i came to NR

dont bother posting tho its a dead forum pretty much

 

good luck with the tank!

[Splumph]

Thats actually the site that lead me here, kyroguy has doen some crazy stuff with his. I got myt first corals today, I will try to get some picks once they are done acclimating. Got 4 5$ frags of GSP, a mushroom with two blue feather dusters (I think) and some green and purple zoas.

[RedMan25xl]

sweet cant wait to see em..

[Splumph]

I get the frags in the tank, and all of a sudden two of the polyps open almost immediately...they are a real pretty purple and green combination. I noticed little small bubble tips, and googled majano, sure enough, i've got two small ones on the zoa rocks

 

 

At least I'm pretty sure that's what it is.

[Obi Juan kenobi]

Joe's juice them

[Splumph]

Getting a syringe Monday, I can throw together some lime water for this.

[RedMan25xl]

so what inverts did you end up getting?

[Splumph]

Some snails, 1 periwinkle, 2 nerite, 2 dwarf planxis, and 1 nassarius. The snails were much smaller than I thought, so I am beefing up the CUC with a cerith, another nassarius, and two more nerites.

 

For the corals I got 2 zoa rocks, purple and green, a mushroom, and some GSP. I will get some pics once everything starts coming out.

[Splumph]

Pics as promised...I'm finally sending in this camera for warranty work, so no pics for a little bit after this.

 

GSP

 

Mushroom (I have moved it away from the zoas)

 

Zoa Rock (I actually pinched out the Majano with a pair of clean nail clippers, it's been a few hours and it hasn't come out)

 

And the other Zoa rock, this one had a majano which I pulled off, and it had a nudi crawling on it which I removed...hopefully there arent more and it didnt lay eggs

[2nd nature]

Pics as promised...I'm finally sending in this camera for warranty work, so no pics for a little bit after this.

 

GSP

 

Mushroom (I have moved it away from the zoas)

 

Zoa Rock (I actually pinched out the Majano with a pair of clean nail clippers, it's been a few hours and it hasn't come out)

 

And the other Zoa rock, this one had a majano which I pulled off, and it had a nudi crawling on it which I removed...hopefully there arent more and it didnt lay eggs

 

i had a minibow 7 for 3 years. it was a cool tank. i bpought another one and broke it trying to drill the back side.im in the process of removing the back and replacinng it with acrylic. running a 40 breeder for my sump with a 150 watt mh

[Splumph]

Today I spotted a nice clove polyp colony at a reasonable price, so I purchased it...I didn't realize this, but it had a leather attached to it (bonus...maybe?) The cloves are doing just fine, but I don't want the leather to go chemical on them, so should I attempt to break the frag and separate the leather?

 

Turned out it was a near dead porites colony, it is coloring back up now though.

[fishstick41]

what kind of leather do you have. i have a finger leather with 2 other soft coral on it and they are doing fine. but it be alright if you break the rock =\ I think

[Splumph]

Edited the post, it was a porites colony, not a leather...lol.

[Splumph]

Got my camera back, so time for new pics

 

This FTS is from a week ago...can't seem to get the cyano under control, 0 phosphates, 5 nitrates.

 

 

Current FTS, my green cloves are ticked off due to the massive cyano eradication effort I tried earlier. Reworked the rock a little bit too.

 

 

Green Cloves and Porites, pic was from a week ago since they aren't open right now.

 

 

GSP

 

\

 

Zoas, I was trying to get a good shot of the orange ones, but it's difficult with a bow front.

 

 

More Zoas, I think the pinks maybe AOGs but I have no idea, 5$ frag!

 

 

Zoa rock.

 

 

Top down on some Zoas, Cloves.

 

 

Silver and green cloves. From a week ago, couldn't photgraph them well tonight.

 

 

And one of my snails...I don't see these guys much, so I figured I'd catch him on film.

 

 

Thanks for you time!

[Splumph]

Newer pic of the green cloves and porites.

 

 

My wifes favorite member of the CUC.