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Coral Vue Hydros

Minibow 7 back in action!


acrab78

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Ok.... My minibow 7 has been running without a light for several months but had live sand and ten lbs of live rock in it. So I have decided to get back into my little reef and bought a new cf bulb 32 watt 50/50 a new 50 watt heaters new whisper 30 hob filter and have done a major water change/clean up and set her all back up! Since my tank was pretty void of life I went to the lfs and picked up two nice pieces of live rock and removed one larger piece of the old rock and rearranged my rock incorporating the two new pieces bringing some life back into the system...

 

I'm unsure if my old rock and sand etc still has all the good bacteria etc or if I am basically starting all over again??? It was running with water movement heat and top off water, just didn't have any lighting so not sure.I am really excited and ready to see how its going to turn out. Been back with lights for about a week and just recently put in the new live rock. I am planning on doing mostly zoanthids, mushrooms, and maybe a leather or something else easy. 

 

 

So setup is: 

7 gallon minibow32 watt cf retrofit 

Whisper 30 hob with seachem seagel

 Small powerhead 50 watt jager heater

Digital thermometer

Live sand and 10 lbs live rock

1 blue leg and one astrea snail so far haha

 

Any advise/suggestions are greatly appreciated!

 

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Wondering what you guys thought?

 

Really wonder if my tank will cycle again or not? Again was running for several months with rock live sand and circulation just no lights... Have had the lights back on for a week and had put in a couple pinches of fish flakes two times now. Haven't had a diatom outbreak or anything.

 

Thanks for any advice!

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I suspect you'll see a smallish cycle, since bacterial populations would have died way back without anything to feed them.

You could toss a few blueleg hermits in there and see what happens.

Also, you're not far from me. I'm about 20 mins NW of Knoxville.

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I suspect you'll see a smallish cycle, since bacterial populations would have died way back without anything to feed them.

You could toss a few blueleg hermits in there and see what happens.

Also, you're not far from me. I'm about 20 mins NW of Knoxville.

 

Thanks for some insight... Yeah when I got the couple new pieces of rock I got one blue leg and one astrea snail. So far so good... That little astrea snail poops all over the place!!! Just wasn't sure if it would still have all the good bacteria or not.

 

Yeah not too far. I went to school in knoxville when we were good in football!

 

Have a link to your tank? Or post a pic!

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Wondering what you guys thought?

 

Really wonder if my tank will cycle again or not? Again was running for several months with rock live sand and circulation just no lights... Have had the lights back on for a week and had put in a couple pinches of fish flakes two times now. Haven't had a diatom outbreak or anything.

 

Thanks for any advice!

 

Just a bit of shared experience here. All tanks have to adapt to changes in "bio load". Dramatic changes induce cycles. Ild say a piece of rock and a couple corals would not change muc. But adding a tiny fish probably would.

I like the idea of the sexy shrimp and mini maxis, the minis are far more tolerant than Rics even on a good day.

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Can't add much but I'm from nashville too! Tank looks good man!

 

Thanks man I'm liking how it looks so far and trying to keep my costs down etc. A fellow Nashville reefer awesome.

 

It appears I am going to have a small cycle too as a couple days ago I noticed a little red slime and diatom brownies...

 

Did a small water change mainly to get the red slime out. Going to the lfs to get a couple blue legs and a couple more snails. Bot sure what kinds right now maybe a couple ceriths or nass. snails. Right now I have one pretty big blue leg who is missing in action and one astrea. Will maybe get another astrea and/or a small turbo too.

 

Looking forward to getting things stabilized and getting some color in there!

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Added a few small blue leg hermits and got a small Mexican turbo snail, Hector.

 

Didn't add anything else. I plan on waiting another week or so and might get a few nass. snails for the sand, any suggestions?

 

Trying my hardest to give it some time... I plan on testing for nitrates later as I feel my tank has cycled.

 

The diatoms and red slime seem to have subsided but a few more days will determine.

 

Any recommendation on some sand cleaning type snails? And quantity?

 

Thanks!

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Reefcleaners.org sells those really tiny ceriths which seem to do a good job getting into all the nooks and crannies in my lr, they also have some smaller nassarius. I had some in a larger tank, but they were quite a bit bigger. Ones I got on reefcleaners.org were a better size for my pico.

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Checked out reefcleaners and decided just to stay with the lfs route on my CUC.

Got a four nassarius snails for the sand a couple more snails and a couple more hermits.

Hopefully that will be good.

 

Total four nassarius, four blue legs (one still missing), two astrea,

two other hermits I think Mexican hermits, and two Mexican turbos...

 

I also got a few starter corals in too, a zoanthid colony, a few fuzzy green mushrooms, and a single

elephant ear mushroom. The zoas opened almost immediately after introduced into my tank!

 

Will let things settle and update some pics tomorrow. Did a water change and changed my filter cartridge on

my whisper hob (purigen inside), but am thinking about changing this filter to an aquaclear 70 I already have

and doing the fuge mod.

 

Also have some stuff coming in the mail including a koralia nano 240 as I don't like any of the four

different powerheads I currently have. Hopefully it will be good flow for the tank.

 

As always comments and suggestions welcome!

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New pictures updating... Fts, zoanthid shot. Elephant ear mushroom on left and fuzzy shrooms in middle.

Just letting things adjust before I move them to spots in the tank. Not sure where yet.

 

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New fts and picked up some new frags from a local reefer.

Got four zoanthid frags a green button polyp and a single purple shroom.

Just kinda have everything on the sand and letting it all adjust before I put em on rocks.

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Trying to get decent photos using my phone... This shows the fire and ice and my favorite new frag,

two polyps of a pinkish one with a green center.

 

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Your corals look very nice, good start to a reef. Now you just need some patience for all of it to start spreading around the rock.

 

Suggestion: maybe add one of the zooanthid frags to the top right rocks, it is looking a little lonely up there and zooanthids in the sand looks too neat for a nano reef. Unless you have plans for that rock and the middle rock going across.

 

I'm sure whatever you do with it, it will look great.

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Thanks for the comments. Yeah I am planning on superglueing some of my coals on

the rock, don't know which ones or where yet though. Was going to give them a few more days of adjusting first!

Also I am going to change the rockwork a little too and maybe take a little out.

 

Yes I useful to love the mb7 forum. It is still online but nobody uses it anymore.

I'm not sure if you can even post there anymore... The mb7 used to be a go to for nano reefing!

But now they don't even make those tank anymore...

 

On an up note I decided to get a small fish for the tank and got a small tailspot blenny!

He is super cool I have always liked blennies and this one is a great size and actually has very

pretty colors. I put him in last night and he's doing good but still hiding a little...

Will try to get a decent pic of him and post it soon.

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A bad picture of my blenny. Might call him Oscar the grouch cause he's always in his hole (trash can)

and whenever a snail or hermit comes around he gets grouchy and marks and bites em! :-)

He had a parasitic isopod on him but I removed it yesterday and am trying to hunt them every night. :-(

But he is getting more active everyday so hope it works out.

 

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Did a little rockwork and glued a few frags to the rocks so updating a FTS.

 

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Might have to move my hairy mushrooms back up where they were. It doesnt seem like

they like it where they are now. Shrinking and turning darker. Kind of have a mushroom

land on the bottom left where the current is a little lighter and the zoas in the middle and right.

Still think I might get some gsp and let it fill in the "bridge" in the middle, but not sure....

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I would watch out for GSP on your main rock work. It has a way of taking over everything which is unfortunate because it looks awesome.

 

Looking good BTW

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I would watch out for GSP on your main rock work. It has a way of taking over everything which is unfortunate because it looks awesome.

 

Looking good BTW

 

Thanks! Yeah I know gsp can grow like a weed and you are probably right I shouldn't have it in the middle of my rockwork... Just would look cool to have a grassy bridge. Will probably just stick with zoanthids and shrooms! :-)

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RIP tailspot blenny. I finally got him to start eating in my tank but I think it was to late.

He ate for two days and then the next morning he was dead. Feel bad for the little guy.

Just going to let the tank be for a little and maybe get another fish later making sure it eats

before I put them in. I had never had a blenny that was a picky eater.......

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