Ritt's Nano

[ritt]

I took down my 58 gallon reef and started a nano reef this past weekend. My tank crashed due to a heat wave and I lost all of my corals. I thought I would share a few photos of the new tank.

 

The tank was custom built for me by Chris at Pico Aquariums using starphire glass. The workmanship on the tank is really amazing. Chris did a great job and I am really impressed. He kept me update every step of the way. I highly recommend Pico aquariums.

 

Tank dimensions 15in x 15in x 10in

 

Display volume about 9 gallons

Lighting: 150w MH Viper

Skimmer: Tunze 9002

 

I found the skimmer and the light on craigslist and got a really great deal.

 

The rock is Tonga live rock that I purchased a few years back and is left over from my larger reef tank about 10lbs. I think I am going to remove some of the rock. I like the open look of some of the other tanks I have seen on this forum.

 

The substrate is a few pounds of Fiji pink live sand. I am hopping I don’t experience much of a cycle.

 

I am really impressed with the tunze skimmer so far. It is almost silent.

 

Inhabitants

 

5 hermit crabs

1 emerald green crab

Few brown mushrooms

 

I am not sure what my plan is for corals. I think I am going to stick with mostly LPS and SPS corals. I don’t have anything specific in mind yet.

 

I would like to get a few fish. I am not sure what yet. Maybe a goby shrimp pair. I would like to get something that is active and swims around in the water column. I am open to suggestions.

 

Some of my rock has some turf algae growing on them. I use to keep an urchin in my tank to control this algae. Does anyone have any recommendations maybe an algae blenny or something else that will keep algae under control.

 

Ritt

 

 

 

[racerfreak]

looks amazingly sexy and makes me jealous good luck with the new tank though

[ritt]

A few pictures of the old tank before the heat wave.

 

 



 



 



 



 



 



 

[ritt]

I been working on my tank a little bit. I removed about half of my live rock the other day. I think things look much better this way.

 

 

I added a LED moon light…It was originally intended for of one of those fancy beta tank that they have out now. I made a delrin mount for it. The light is really bright. I am not sure if I like it yet.

 

 

I do have some critters in the tank now. I found a very small pgyme angle at the LFS the other week. I was trying to get a photo last night but he was being shy.

 

I also just received a few things from live aquaria the other week. Most everything is still hiding out most of the time.

 

Yashi Goby (I have only seen it twice and have no idea where it is hiding.)

A really tiny tiny pistol shrimp (It seems to be missing a claw.)

Sexy Shrimp

Anemone Shrimp

Pom Pom Crab (Haven’t seen it since I added to the tank)

 

 

I have a bit of film algae growing on the glass and the sand at this point. I cut my lighting cycle back to only a few hours a day since I don’t have any corals yet.

[ritt]

I purchased one of hyperboys S’more clowns earlier this week. He is a great guy to deal with. The clown is only about an inch long and has a ton of personality. The clown and my pygmy angle seem to be buddies they usually hang out together.

 

I found my missing yasha goby. The goby tried some carpet surfing earlier this week. After tearing the whole tank apart looking for it I found him dried out on the floor.

 

Ritt

 

 



 



 



 



 



 

[Miami797]

All I can say is, Wow.

 

You have an amazing pair of fish for a 9 gallon. It's ballsy having a pygmy and a clown together in a small tank, and your clown just happens to be a S'more. I'm pretty jealous to say the least. I wanted a cherub or Brazilian Flameback along with a clown in my 12 gallon. I settled for putting a Banggai and a Clown.

 

I will be tagging along for the ride.

 

Good Luck, and congrats on getting a S'more.

[EchoReef]

Great setup, I love you're fish

[Pudding]

+1 Love the chrub Is it aggressive?

 

 

Do you think it'll grow out of your tank? How big of a tank was your last one with the fuzzy?

[Curry02]

I like how you have that rock setup. Looks great. Hope you're keeping up with the water changes.

[ritt]

Thanks for the nice comments. I really like my tank so far.

 

My cherub angle is really small at the moment. It is not much bigger than the clown. Neither fish acts aggressive towards one another. I have kept potters angles and bicolor angles in the past and never had a problem with them being aggressive.

 

I am not sure if the cherub will out grow the tank or not. We will see….I have heard of others keeping them in smaller tanks. I believe that there was a tank of the month where some one was keeping one in a 5 gal. My observation so far is the angle likes to hang out in and around the rock pile on the left. At the LFS this is also how the fish behaved. It liked to hang out in a one very small area of the tank.

 

I am more concerned with the clown becoming aggressive. I have had other clowns in the past and they were the most aggressive fish in the tank. During cleanings and water changes they would attack my hand and bite my fingers all the while all the other fish would be hiding out. It is also my observation that clowns tend to stake out a very small area and never leave that area. The clowns that I have had that hosted with anemones never left the anemone.

We will see what happens as the fish mature.

 

The dwarf lion was really tiny. Only about 2 inches. It was in my 58 gallon tank. The lion never came out. It always hid in the rocks some where. I would go for weeks on end never seeing the fish. When I took my tank down I kind of expected to see the fish again but the heat wave must have also got it. I really liked it. I would d keep one again.

[Billdemart]

Man that angel is awesome.

[Banjo]

Love the choice of fish!

[CollegeNano]

Bummer! I saw your avatar and thought you were part of the dwarf lion club. Mine just came in almost 2 weeks ago and I'm working on getting him to take frozen foods. He has definitely become more active as he becomes used to the tank, but overall mostly nocturnal.