I did it. I finally committed to buying and setting up a tank.
After being told that a Betta rice paddy biotope would not be an attractive addition to the house, then the yes/no cycle over getting a nano marine tank for the whole house, I decided to just go ahead and do something small and unobtrusive in my bedroom.

I found a fish tank deal in Chester market that looked decent; a roughly 3 imperial gallon tank with a small HOB and a bottle of water conditioner, other gubbins, etc. It even came with a light.
I asked them to open a box up on the counter, and they did; the components mathed what was in the box, though the tank had rather sloppy sealing. I agree to take one and they get an unopened box down off the shelf.

I get it home, open it up, and find that there have been some liberties taken with the contents. The filter was, to be charitable, not as effective as it would hope to be; it even struggled to pump water unless it was primed repeatedly and prayed at. The tank holds water, thankfully.
The light was 7 watts.
My face fell.
Luckily I had a 14 watt fixed to one of my betta tanks, and for the time being they are making do with a 7 watt instead, and I bought an Aqua one HOB to act as a refugium.

I am nicknaming the tank 'cyberpunk reef' for now, because at the moment it is a tiny box of water surrounded by serpentine bundles of equipment.

Here's the current equipment list

Aqua One 800 ltr/hr HOB filter (not curently a refugium. It is working as a mechanical filter with everything but wool and the 'bio-grille' removed. I am dubious of the proclaimed filtration properties of the grille, so really the unit is functioning as a flow creator, sieve and a box of water)

Aqua One 25 Watt heater (handily in the above)

Cyber Aqua 14 Watt clip on aquarium light (flourescent bulb, half white half 'red')

Livestock

- 1.5 kilograms of live rock. (3.3 lbs roughly)

and here's the pictures:


low water level because i was afraid of backsiphoning from the huge filter. I'll top up tomorrow.


ROCKS


ROCKS IN CONTEXT


and again


inquisitive neighbour







I'll keep you all posted. Any advice people can offer is welcome, especially regarding that light fitting; has anybody heard of that company before? Also I was quite ginger in scrubbing the live rock; did I take enough off?

If you keep your params in check the algae will die off. However I think you may want to add a bit more LR (as a personal preference anyway). Good luck with the build!

I'll keep that in mind. It is a shame as I quite like plantlife, but I suppose the overall health of the system has to come first.

I've been watching some interesting little hitchhikers over the past day and night; a multitude of miniscule snails, each with varying shell shapes, a snadhopper like creature with a pillbug shape that has been burrowing into the sand, and some very odd small white finger-like projections that disappear slowly into the rock if i turn the light on to look at night.

A macro algae tank can look very good, but you need the right algaes. Many of them that sprout up during the cycle are very invasive and can and will choke off certain livestock if left to its own devices. There have been a few poeple around here that have started macro tanks.

aah, I understand. I cut off some bubble algae growths before placing the rocks in, being careful not to pop the vesicles.
I was also wondering; will the huge-ass filter disrupt the cycle?
More hitch-hikers have turned up; something rather serpentine with a red bum about two inches long that hates light shot away into a crevice when i snuck the light on briefly before.

As a note, I have found the best way to see what arrived on my live rock is to turn the lights off at 19:00 hours, wait about an hour, then sneak back in and turn them on suddenly.

Today I did it and saw something I've not seen before. I could get a picture because it blended in almost perfectly with the live rock, but it was (I'm assuming) a snail. it moved quite fast, had a low rounded shell that didn't curl, and two huge whiplike antennae. It also HATES light.

the glass is covered in tiny white specks. There are filter feeding animals poking their apparatus out of the rock.

All in all I'm really, REALLY enjoying just having a tank of some stones.

The snail is a stomatella. Very good hitchicker. If you want to view many of these little guys, use a low intensity light, like a cheap LED flashlight, or a red light, which most critters can't see.

Good idea.
I'll take some more pictures very soon.

New pictures, hot off my digital camera today.Tank is in it's sixth day.







Something is building this, but I can't see what:

Quick question; am I better leaving the HOB as a filter (i've stripped out the carbon and just left the wool and the 'bio-grille') or should I continue with my 'fuge plans? Which would be more beneficial?

Eight days in, and the tank now has only a faint, healthy smell to it, macro algae is slowing in it's growth rate, and i see more and more varieties of worms every day.

I got a full test kit today and these are the results I obtained:

NH3- 0ppm
NO2- 0ppm
NO3-0ppm ( BUT the kit scale goes in increments of five, so I assume this has a larger margin for error)
pH- 8.2

I assume the Nitrate level is low because of the algal growth (both macro and micro) in the tank, though the micro algae seems to be shrinking off now. The Macro Algae's growth rate has also decreased from it's initial greased lightning levels.


[post copied into both this thread and biofiltration thread for record keeping]

the thing building that is inside it, it's a worm of some sort, I have a few in my tank. You'll see a tentacle come out and move around looking for food / building. Mine have gotten to about an inch long before something comes along and knocks it apart so it starts over, I don't know what they are exactly but they've been harmless.

I've seen a few on those worms you describe in my tank, but I've not seen any actually building tubes; they seem to come out of holes in the rockwork and fumble about for things to grab. This is the first thing I've seen actually being constructed in the tank. I will be pleased if it is one of them and I've got to watch the entire building process:)

More pics on sunday. I'll make it a weekly event.

A day late!

The tank now has some new life in it, both intentional and unintentional.







This fell off when placing the Zoanthids in the tank, so I wedged it onto another rock and hopefully in time it will grow.


Bubble algae; I'll have to sort that out.


oh, this little guy pokes his arms out most of the day too

Dude that colony is wayyyyyy too big for that tank. Pretty soon that thing is going to carpet off and take up the whole tank trust me! You should frag off all but maybe a 1/4 of it and sell it off to make more money for more frags. Variety is the spice of life!

Edit: Also unless you REALLY like those yellow polyps, keep them secluded away from all other rocks. Those things EXPLODE in numbers and it's usually harder to frag than regular zoas (mine don't mat)

Haha, I knew I'd do something wrong. The Zoanthids are already generating daughter colonies of 2-3 polyps each as the rock that they are on is quite crumbly. Are they interesting enough to actually be sold?

The Yellow polyps...are no longer a threat to the tank's balance; other than about three of them the whole stone is now clear. I have no clue why. Could it possibly be a case of allelopathy? I noticed the zoanthids looked rather pinched and would not open properly when the yellow polyps were first added, but as soon as the zoanthids started to look healthier the yellow polyps started dying off!

Here is my tank as it is today: it now contains a sun coral (who i love feeding) and a mushroom leather in addition to the oversize zoanthids. you may spot the little zoanthid colonies on other rocks if you look closely:







I've ordered a Wave Solaris 18 watt lamp from www.onlineaquariumstore.com. I placed the order on the 17th of last month and they are still to fulfill it!

EDIT: the Leather is not as close to those zoanthids as it appears; it's a bit of an optical illusion.

What is this? I circled it in the pic?

I think it is a brittlestar. It pokes more legs out of another gap just above that one.