Well I've been lurking here long enough!
Literally years of skimming information from here and Im just now a member! First a little about me.
Im a 22 year old art student living in downtown Seattle. I've kept 2 nano's in the past. A 20gal high started about 5 years ago. Mainly a softies tank and my maroon clowns domain. Then I started a black sand 12gal nano and gave it to my girlfriend at the time(regretfully) That was my first introduction to an all-in-one. Had to leave the 20gal behind in Oregon. Spent my first year up here tankless and decided I couldnt take it anymore. I was missing apart of my life!
After some research online and all over these forums I decided I need a 28gal Nano Cube in my living room. Found a killer deal on Foster and Smiths. $259 including the $170 matching stand (for FREE)....with $5.99 shipping. Cant beat that! I really wish I had the extra cash to spring for the HQI model, I realize how much more bang for your buck you get with it, just couldnt manage it at the moment (jobless art student) but I totally plan on upgrading the lighting in the future...either HQI hood or LED...mmmmmLEDs!

So I received my first boxes from Drfoster and was horrified upon the opening of the tank!
Nothing like broken toys on X-mas!


Besides the shattered hopes errrr tank, I ordered 20lbs of Arag-Alive Special grade Live sand (its exactly what I wanted, no black silica of death, just natural heavier grain aragonite...lovely) I also purchased a refractometer this time around. What a handy little gadget. Quite a bit heftier than I imagined too! Also a Marineland 150W heater, and bought a bucket at bed bath and beyond (closest place i could think of within walking distance in downtown seattle) And last but certainly not least big Jug-o-salt!


Quite upset but composed I called up Dr Foster & Smith and was delighted that the phone didnt even ring once. A nice elderly sounding woman answered the phone. She was extremely helpful and had a new tank shipping out for me the next day! Another 5-7 day wait unless I wanted to pay a couple hundred to speed up shipping. Nervous about Fed Ex ground shipping I waited and watched the tracking page like a predator...
Today it arrived and intact! I noticed a black film of dust in the back chamber and a lot built up on the chambers floor. Wiped it out and it appeared to be from the carbon maybe?
I also received another box from them as well which included another 20lbs of sand and a coralife digital timer. Very glad I invested in one of these this time around as I wanted to give my future livestock a more natural cycle.

Rinsed out the carbon...tossed the ceramic rings in the trash....and began dumping the sand in! I was surprised the tank swallowed up my 40 lbs of sand pretty easily and gave me a 3.5" sandbed to play with.
Added water, which was a task in itself lugging 25 gallons of water 2 blocks away at the rite-aid all the way to my 12th floor apartment. Doesnt sound terribly far but water adds up! Got er up and running finally



Pretty boring I know...just sand and water but I know some of you have been here before!
Will do art for Liverock! haha! My funding has hit a brick wall as Im sure some of you can relate as well!

I happen to have an extra new in box JBJ 32" stand though! (list price $160-180) So tomorrow I will be calling the only good local fish store I have seen online for the Seattle area (Bellvue 10-15 min bus ride) and ask if they will take it off my hands as in store credit trade in. Im crossin my fingers cuz thats my live rock and then some right there! Would be really convenient and they will surely get themselves a loyal customer willing to bus it to get there!

Any locals on here know of some good places in the area?? and please dont say the international district...I ventured there the other day and left feeling pretty sad for those creatures. You should never feel like you are saving or doing a favor to the animal by buying it! That place will never see a dollar from me! I walked around the empty store with my roommate.... and the manager and his son didnt utter a single word to us for the first 10min! The 5" dead fish in the main display tank looked like it had been there for a while. Nice way to start off the walk though! Not a total loss...I learned where NOT to shop!

Anyway I will be posting my day to day struggles, epiphanies, and moments of joy no doubt!!
While Im not exactly new to nanos Im no expert and plan on keeping a much prettier reefscape this time around. So advice in any way, shape, or form is MUCH appreciated! Would especially like to hear from fellow 28gal(ers)!
I'm so pumped to be back in the reef game and in full force....doing things right this time!
Stay tuned for updates ladies and gents..

hi and seattleite,
nice looking tank keep us all posted
i shall follow your thread

Welcome

I'm assuming the store in Bellevue is Saltwater City? The owner is a nice guy but a lot of their stuff is a little spendy. Make sure you check out their aquarium of nano sized live rock in the back on the right side, 2.99 per pound and if they have added to it recently or if you dig you can find some good stuff in there.

"That Fish Store" on Roosevelt just north of Ravenna is pretty nice, I used to live a couple blocks away. The 66 goes there.

My two favorite places are Blue Sierra which is in Issaquah but the 554 stops pretty close and it is surprisingly fast due to limited stops, and Barrier Reef in Renton which you can't get to by bus (and hard to find by car lol) but it's worth it however you can get there.

I'll keep my eye on this thread, there aren't a whole lot of king county reefers here

@Oceanbreeze- Thank you for being the first to welcome me to the boards! Glad to have someone following along!

@cptbjorn- First thank you!!
Yes you were absolutely correct in assuming Saltwater City. Never been there before but thought I'd give it a go! $2.99/lb wow I like that, thanks for the tip.
Read a few reviews on the stores you suggested and it seems as though "the fish store" gets somewhat mixed reviews but I'm still going to check it out as well.
In your experience which store have you been more pleased with? and which store do you think would be more likely to take in my 32" stand for store credit towards rock and things?
BTW Blue Sierra looks great! Barrier reef might be possible if the 'rents or sister come visit with their car. I need a cute girlfriend with a car is there a store for those in the king county area?? haha
thanks for following along brotha, glad to have a local reefer chiming in already!!

!
good luck with you tank. you seem to have a good start with all the equipment and salt that you have

I don't know who to recommend for the stand, Blue Sierra would be the best but they are rearranging and shrinking their space some right now so I don't know if they would do it or not. I guess just call a couple places and see what they say?

I've read the reviews about the fish store too, it has never been that dirty when I've been there but I don't go that often so maybe I've been lucky. They have more fish than corals though and I usually only go there for salt mix and I usually don't end up buying anything else.

Overall my favorite store is Blue Sierra since they have inexpensive corals including well-stocked 9.99/19.99 racks usually. Barrier Reef has tons of awesome corals all the time but awesome corals are expensive and I don't have the $$ to shop there... One day though

Girlfriend with a car? Why would you do that just buy a car, way cheaper lol.

I will be calling SWCity, the Fish Store, and Blue Sierra as soon as I get out of class this afternoon! Hopefully one of them will accept the stand otherwise I'll be craigslisting it..
BAHAHAHA good call on the girlfriend! Ive been single for too long so my brain tends to forget how expensive they are! I guess I was thinking of the added benefit of the wheels without having to worry about maintenance/parking/insurance/loans so much lol. So far a year in Seattle and a pair of shoes and a good rain jacket have served me well enough... Although Im gonna really appreciate the car i get after school thats for sure...(let my sister take over payments on my '02 Audi A4 back in Oregon...painful)
Thanks for the fast input man!

Well I couldnt wait to call these LFS so I ran home on my lunch break.

Saltwater City- the guy was rude for sure, he acted as if he didnt have time for my 3 questions. I asked him what their hours where and he replied with a huff and "why?" I said "ummm because im bussing it from Downtown seattle" and to top it off he said he wanted $10/lb for their rock because it was such amazing rock...ive never paid 10/lb.. and he def didnt want anything to do with my extra stand and didnt even say by. just hung up on me.

The Fish Store...easily the coolest person I talked to.. $6.98 for Fiji, and Im sure it varies. He didnt want my stand either but said good luck anyway. I will most likely be shopping there when it comes time...

Blue Sierra is 7.99-10.99/lb and she was pretty easy to talk to, but also didnt want my stand.
Now I'm thinkin my only option is to sell it on craigslist for as much as I can if anyone even happens to need a 28g Stand!! or Maybe a member here needs one and I can ship it? But other than that Im not sure what to do... Looks like it might be a little while till I can afford Rock

But the Fish store gained themselves a customer just from the way I was handled on the phone...Cant wait to go check it out now.

Welcome!!! Glad to see another Washingtonian around this place!!!

You're not going to find LR around here for cheap! For my NC, I bought from Dr Fosters and Smith. It was cheaper to have it shipped! For my Solana, I bought Florida Reef Rock from reefcleaners.org, and love it!!! Check it out for sure!

Barrier Reef is an amazing store, but it is spendy! They are good people though, and I make the hour drive once in a while to check it out!

I'll be following your thread for sure!

+1 on the florida reef rock. My sister has a 50br that started with ~40lbs of eco rox from bulkreefsupply which is the same stuff, ~15-20 lbs of the white cement rocks I made this summer and only ~3 lbs of the nano rocks from Saltwater City plus 80 lbs of live sand. Takes a bit for the bacteria to build up in all the dead rocks but they are already starting to cover with coralline and it's only been maybe 3 months since we set it up. Saved a ton of money vs buying live rock.

Everyone else basically covered everything I was going to say lol.

Sweet another Washingtonian!

DITTO!

AYE! put some drip loops on those power cords! sh@! lol jk. welcome fellow 206er

Nah, drip loops are lame. You want the saltwater to drip straight to the outlet so it flips your breaker and you find out there is a problem right away instead of finding out when you step up to your tank and hear the dreaded squish squish sound of wet carpet because it has been leaking for hours

Thanks for the welcome bro! I ended up heading over to The fish Store in the U-district. Had a great experience there all around and grabbed up my first batch of live rock. I would have loved to purchase it all in one fell swoop but only had enough for about 12 lbs. I realize this will affect my cycle later to add more rock but the store had some really great fully cured rock for $6.95/lb and it was out of the water a total of maybe 45 mins bus trip included. So Im expecting very minimal die off I have the rocks scaped for the time being but Im not getting too attached ass I know I will be adding another 10-15lbs to it.



Sounds like a good route but its too late and I think Im just gonna keep it as natural as I can


Thanks man!


and thank you sir...read through your post the other day as a matter of fact...pretty inspirational man keep it going looks good!

Now like I said I picked up about 12lbs of rock already...I'll follow up with some pics!
I also got 2 carribean hermits and 2 scarlet's...also 4 Cerith snails...now before any of you say it...
I already know I rushed the crabs and snails. This is my 3rd tank and I've never added a mini CUC this fast but I think they will be good. Like i said very minimal die off if any from the rocks. So far everything has been in there a day and they are all very happy and exploring. It's a bit of a trip by bus to the store and I am on limited funding (story of my life) so I decided to grab a couple little guys to give my tank atleast a little movement going on!
I dont really plan on getting any more crabs as they tend to be more trouble than they are worth but still fun to watch no doubt. I think the bulk of my CUC will be some zombie snails (whats their proper names? nassarius?) and some other sand sifters, maybe a cucumber or something. Nudibranch are cool too.
I'll be back with pics shortly.

Update!
Ok, had a busy Halloween night so I forgot to post up pics. Here they are:





and a few of the inhabitants..





Everyone is doing fine this today. I've spotted quite a few pods scooting about the rockwork already as well. That made me pretty happy. And not just little lice sized ones...big rats too. You know the burly ones with curved backs. Pretty smooth sailing so far. I'm so happy to have this hobby back in my life, what an amazing outlet, and stress reliever. I cant wait to start up a little coral garden of my own(so jealous of members tanks already!!)...Im going to give it a week or two and check parameters like a madman before I even think about softies or fish, and there will be a water change in order by then I'm sure.
Im thinking id like to have a nice ricordia garden...some stand out zoo colonies for sure as well. After that its all up in the air. Im not sure what people have been successful with under just the stock 105w lighting yet. I plan to upgrade my lighting but that wont be for a while.

Also I had a question...are there any mods/retrofits available to the stock 105w Quad hood? Nanotuners/customs seem to just target the already HQI owners... I saw that there is a retro for the 24 gal hood that makes it into a 28 gal HQI for $300 I believe...So I assume the retro can be applied to the 28 Quad hood. Basically what Im wanting is more control! I want to be able to have a full range of light for dawn and dusk settings as well. So control of some actinics would be nice. I soooo wish this stock hood had 2 separate cords for the main lighting. It would be so much nicer to fade from full lighting > just actinics and moonlights > just moonlights! So even if I go HQI down the road Im going to want to add some actinics as well...ugh maybe I'll just wait till these new LED hoods are out and pick one of those bad boys up. I suppose they have much less evap than a metal halide would...and I know LED have a way longer lifespan and WAY less power consumption. Would probably be a worthy investment in a few months.

This Hobby is so dang expensive though...I want another powerhead for down low in the back. Maybe a koralia 1 or something. I'd like to purchase a skimmer for this tank as well (never owned one before) and a Fuge light for the back would be cool. Not sure on how to tackle that exactly as the back of my tank is only 3.5-4'' from the wall. I saw a Coralife Mini Aqualight 9" - Freshwater (Fuge Light) on Nanotuners same price as the 50/50 coralife mini 9". Is the freshwater light fixture the best for a mini fuge in the center chamber?
and thats not counting the livestock I wanna get! Shrimps! Pretty crabs! Mated Pair of Clowns! Maybe an Anemone for them to host. Id love a tailspot Blenny as well or a Blue Spot Jawfish! Im a fan of 6 line wrasse's as well. I will need a cruiser of somekind thats for sure!

Anyway lemme know what you guys think...Id love some input from fellow 28 gal owners!

Been busy with school but everything is doing great!
My API test Kit arrived yesterday and all the parameters were good.
Except Amonia @ 0.25
I also Added a bag of chemipure.
I have rescaped the rocks about 3 times now. Heres the latest with my measly 11-12 lbs





On a good note I will be traveling back to Oregon for Thanksgiving break, where my old 20gal is. I plan to basically cannibalize anything I can from that tank. I will be putting my 5+year established live rock into buckets, Going to catch my Big Maroon Clown, All my hermits and snails, an I believe I still have a large ball of chaeto filled with pods and starfish as well. All of that will be added to my cube. And the 20gal will be left for a fresh start. When I go back a month later for Winter Break I plan to set it up as a Seahorse Tank for my Mom.
All in all everything is quite healthy. I added a Yellow sea cucumber the other day but he has chosen to explore the rock tunnels rather than the dirty sand that needs cleaning!! Will try to snap a few pics of him when he's out.

Looks good. Glad to see another N.W. person!!

Thank you! Just curious where do you shop for your saltwater needs? So far Ive only gone up north to the Fish Store in the U-District.

good start

I have one guy here in B town. SharkReef, he's a great guy to deal with, will order you anything. I think on your side of the water you have a few more choices. Not sure though, There is a guy in Kent that have been talking to....he's been pimping the 9.99 frags on C.L. I can give you a link if you want...

I like the sound of 9.99 frags! Would love to have his link thanks! SharkReef have a store in Bremerton?

It's actually in Silverdale, 15 min from Bremerton. Here is the link.....
http://seattleaquafarm.com/

Great thanks a lot!!
Also for anyone interested I have in my possession a 28gal JBJ Stand New in Box. Its got a $170 value. Id be willing to part with it for $120 OBO if anyone local wants it. Dont need 2 of them and would love to give a good deal to someone thats lookin for a beautiful stand.

Purchased my 1st fish today. Beautiful 6 Line Wrasse. She has wonderful coloring and is such a fun cruiser to watch. Never had a fish quite like this. I had a Coral Beauty once but it was nowhere near as nimble or energetic as this fish is! She's a real treat to watch, swimming in and out of the rockwork. Constantly surprising me on where she pops out next savage little hunter too. She eats flake food as well, as she gulped down a few micro flakes of Formula One(such a tiny little mouth on her). She is quite the ham as well. Sneaking into any shot she could tonight.



She's as infatuated with the new Xenia frag as am I


And I know I know I should have cleaned the glass before trying to take pics. I still havent bought a proper algae scraper. Aw well gives the snails a pasture to graze on for now, and I still managed a few good shots.



And a Close-up of the lil Xenia I picked up as well. Just placed it on the top so its closest to the light for now.


Both additions were quite happy for their first day in the tank!

Newest additions and Kodak moments



The boxer crab just makes me laugh! He has some hilarious mannerisms


this has become the porcelain's sacred xenia lol.


Fire and Ice





Lettuce Nudi that has an affinity for getting sucked into the back compartment already (he might be headed back to the store)


Lemme know what you think everyone! My 6 Line is very happy! Quite the hunter and so aware of me!
I will be heading home to Oregon for the Thanksgiving weekend. I have a 20gal tank there that I will be stealing a good 10-15lbs of live rock from My maroon clown will also be making the journey up to Seattle as well as some crabs and a pencil tipped urchin.

My dad also contacted a friend of his, who owns a very large reef tank. I want to guess 200gal+. and hes moving everything over to a newly built in wall display tank, accessible by room behind it.
Anyway he is apparently wanting to get rid of a lot of his corals and overgrowth as frags and told my dad I should bring a 5 gal bucket so I can fill it with WHATEVER I WANT! Lol I'm a little excited to say the least to see what kind of frags and chunks he has for me Will update with pics when Ive got them back up here.

Share the wealth..........you'll be driving right by me. I'll take some Oregon corals!!!!! lol

Haha lemme get 'em up here and situated, I plan to start fragging so don't worry I'm sure we can arrange somethin I also managed to talk my ex girlfriend into giving me a biocube 14 gal back that I set up for her a couple years ago. I'm sure some cleaning and fixing will be in order as I'm pretty confident she let it crash big time and long ago lol. But hey free tank! (not really, but when u write something off completely and it ends up coming back to you years later it's kinda like free right?)

The Biocube has mini coral fragging tank written all over it!! I will either be setting up some of Evils LEDs PAR 38s for it or just retro the stock hood with another 24watt for now. But either way I'm stoked to get the extra tank and new coral frags up here!!

Nanobuds likey tank. Nanobuds think tank is good

Thanks a lot bro! Your tank is absolutely gorgeous!! I'll def be striving for something similar although I need to upgrade the lighting!

haha thanks!!

Warning: Massive Update!!

Ok wow I havent updated since Late November and lets just say things have changed a little
So a little background before I get into a lot of pics..
Over thankgiving break in Oregon I ended up taking my existing 20 gal tank apart and bringing about 15lbs more Live Rock along with My Maroon clown that I've had for 6-7 years now and a pencil tipped sea urchin. I also met with my dads friend who owns a 150 gal in wall tank. He was kind of overrun with coral since I believe he downgraded in size and needed to get get of some things. So he invited me and my dad out to his place before I left back for seattle.
The first thing he pulls out is this huge piece of Monti.. Im talkin this thing barely fits in a 5 gal bucket. He says, "Im always breaking this piece off with my elbow...you want it?" Uhhh Yess!
then he starts grabbing me small frags of other color variations of monti.. Red orange and Purple. Then a frag rock with ricordia of some kind growing on it. And to top it off he had 3 Rose Tipped anemones. He said I could have one if I could get it off the rock. So after some gentle work I got one loose and ready to travel..
The adventure to seattle in my Moms Charger was interesting with all this sea life
So heres what it looks like as of 3 days ago...

And Some new inhabitants...

Dusky Jawfish





His eye color changes depending on the angle you are viewing them from! sometime green, sometimes blue, or both, or yellow and orange, or red, or blue and purple...you get the idea its crazy! And he is by far the fastest fish in the tank. There was no delay in tunnel building. As soon as he got into my tank he was digging. I love the spot he settled on. Its Front and Center about 3 or 4 inches in from the front of the glass. Looking right out at me at all day.

Holey chipotle!

Cleaner Shrimp - Sean Claude


The only picture I've managed to grab of Lola lately. She loves to show herself...she loves to show off...she loves to dance... but omg she never sits still But she growing very quickly and her colors are much more vibrant than when I first got her!


I had to head back to Oregon for 3 weeks for winter break. In that time I put my good friend Kayleigh in charge of the tank for 2 of those 3. She took great care of everything! My roommate was back to take care of it the last week until I was back. When I arrived back up here in Seattle I was really really surprised how much everything had grown! The anemone had easily doubled in size if not tripled! Fire and Ice colony is HUUUGE! The yellow/green monti shelf had brilliant new color along the rim again... and was noticeably thicker to the naked eye with a ton more polyps poking out! Seriously everything appeared as if it had eaten miracle grow the whole time! Also my roommate bought me an Emerald grab and a beautiful new Zoanathid colony




This thing is huuuge!








and this is a fun pic I got at the end of shooting pics.. Goin for a ride

Wow that nem is huge!!!!

And this is a big update, tank is simple, but looking really good!

Awesome update!!!

Your pictures are amazing!!!

Thank you! Both of you! Its amazing having this much bio-diversity and its all thriving. Its all co-existing. And its starting to feel like a chunk of reef was dropped into my living room My roommate and I have a bunch of friends that regularly view the tank and look for new additions or growth so its been a pretty fun adventure so far!
As of right now I have:
1-Gold Striped Maroon Clown
1-Six Line Wrasse
1-Dusky Jawfish
1-Emerald Crab
1-Boxer(pom pom) crab
1-Porcelain Crab
1-cleaner shrimp
1-sea cucumber
7 or 8- hermits
8-100 snails- its hard to tell. and I recently spotted snails cruising that were smaller than the grains of sand!
1-lettuce nudibranch turned into 4 babies and the mom mysteriously disappeared
1-pencil tipped urchin
1-rose tipped anemone
I will try and figure out all the corals in there tomorrow. By the way can anyone ID any of the corals for me? is that a particular ricordia of any kind? It has 3 little babies on it as well. 1 fully formed mini ric and 2 more taffy looking drips that are soon to be rics Also any ID on the mixed zoa colony?

Time for an update!
FINALLY some Green Star Polys! I only say it like that because Ive literally wanted a colony of my own for years. Just never pulled the trigger on some, or timing would be off or something. My family came to visit me a couple of weeks ago, and I made it a mission to take a trip to Bellevue and check out Saltwater City. Absolutely blown away with that place. Everything was immaculate as far as I could tell. One of the more impressive stores I have been to without a doubt, then again I'm a newbie to the hobby compared to some of the veterans on these boards. Anyway long story short I grabbed myself a nice colony of GSP... and they are gorgeous.

I purchased a magnetic frag rack a few weeks back from Blackrock Reef. Its extremely well built and can hold a surprising amount of frags. The rack is a temporary solution until I can set up a prop tank. Kinda dreaming of a 20gal Long with halides or LEDs to grow some rare Palys and try my hand at a variety of stony corals. But thats future plans on an art students budget!!
Just yesterday I received frag plugs and tiles along with a scalpel and some forceps. So needless to say I got to work!
Please PM me if anyone in the area would like to swap some frags or purchase any of mine. Id love to get some variety going! Looking for more Zoos and would LOVE to get some Palys going. Keep in mind I'm in Downtown Seattle if you are interested!
I have quite a few plugs of Fire & Ice doing nicely after surgery. Also discovered what those lovely orange Center and green skirted zoas are... Eagle Eyes! Made a couple frags of them as well. Made 3 tile frags of GSP while I was at it.
Enough talk here's the pics. Please comment! Id love some feedback!












New edition thanks to mom and sister's secret purchase at Saltwater City. Haha I didnt even have a say! But Hes awesome and surprisingly tenacious for his size!



All the tiles, except the GSP tiles, have been moved up to the frag rack about 20 mins after these pics were taken tonight. My Maroon Clown is becoming a little too big for my tank I fear. He was stressed by these new additions and flipped over quite a few of my corals. If any one would like a This beautiful Gold Striped Maroon and or the anemone please contact me. I would like to find them a good home and would love to make a trade out of it if possible. But either way let me know, he needs a new home : /



Also looking for a new home for this pencil tipped urchin.



Mother colonies after fragging:

tank looks great, are you still running the stock quad hood?

Yeah, unfortunately havent come up with the funding for any of the lighting fixtures I've been eyeing lately though. Im trying to sell an extra 28 gal stand i have lying around on Craigslist for cash towards new lights but so far no bites.
Everything seems to have good growth and is content for the time being. All except the anemone. Cant figure out what its problem is lately. Water conditions are pristine, although a skimmer would be really nice right now!
If I wasnt living the student life, Maxspect LED lights you would be mine! Also looking at Icecaps setups and other LED setups. Cuz LED is just sexy! Been envying anything to do with Evil's setups lately, and the momentum behind the LED movement in the reef industry is very interesting to me! Gah Im just rambling, maybe someone who actually knows what they are talking about could suggest some future LED Upgrades for this tank... I have no problem going open top. The All in one design is nice but that hood is gone in a heartbeat if that means I can have an LED fixture hanging above it. And Id really like to be able to throw anyything i want in my tank with out worrying about if I will meet its Lighting requirements.

I love LED's too but IMO the only thing you save on is not having to replace bulbs. For a Tank our size it's more cost affective to buy a Sunpod or Nova Extreme Pro. I averaged about $500 for a 24 LED setup, with tools and everything needed including the stock hood. For that price I can buy 2 years of Lights and it's easier for me to cash out $100 a year on lighting than $500 at once. I'm still amazed you've been able to keep those corals w/ PC lighting. Good luck w/ the rest of the tank, I'll be watching this thread.

You raise some good points! I wasnt considering DIY LED at this point, definitely leaning more towards something professionally done. Im good with computers but not electrical wiring per say. And I think I could find something cheaper than $500 that would suffice. Isnt the LED hood thats completely swappable with the stock hood like $399? And then your investment is going towards the extra life of the LED bulbs over T5 or Hallides. I very well may still go with a sunpod fixture, really like them a lot so who knows. Just sorta weighing my options for the near future here...

And thank you! Im pretty amazed most of the time myself! Im fully aware of coral requirements and especially aware that my setup is not ideal for stonys. The Monti is doing better than good, Its flourishing and gaining color weekly. I also have a little nugget of some Mystery coral (yellow fish perched on it in some pics) maybe you or some others could help with an ID. In person it has a purplish/blue tint so it, with brown little hairy polyps that poke out. Its been acting strange the last two days. Not sure if its from the little fishes incessant perching or if its a sign that i need to upgrade the lights.. but it has spent weeks encrusting this little rock rubble further and further. Its just now growing a little bulge at the top and I believe it may start to finger if I can keep it alive. The Plan is to get better lights obviously, Skimmer, Turn back compartment into fuge, and add more flow down low. Also try and gain more broodstock Zooz, Palys, and Rics for the time being through trades and a few purchases online possibly.

I fully agree with anyone who has observed that this hobby is like crack, or insert name of highly addictive drug here, because I cant stop thinking about it. Totally rules me, Im constantly researching different topics and forming new future plans with money that doesnt exist...I mean this is just not healthy...
Then on the other hand it is healthy, it's the healthiest escape I can think of! Just a time and money consuming escape to say the least! So rewarding at the end of the day though...I literally dont know anyone my age, in the area, with something like this in their living rooms! Very cool to see how into it my friends and roommate have become! Its 100% the center of attention in my apartment. Everyday.
Now that Im fragging I feel even more a part of this hobby! Haha underwater gardener vibes

Great looking tank. I set my 28g nano up about the same time you did. Hows the Nim doing in your tank? Has he moved/stung anything?

Yeah and your tank looks great as well!! As far as the anemone goes, he has changed angles a few times but never left where is foot originally grabbed onto. Im not sure what to make of him the past few weeks. There has been times i have been certain it was splitting. And then apparently not. Also the tentacles have gone under some serious changes. They are all now just short and stubby. No more Anemone Forest for my clownfish. Its strange since everything else is doing so well. I have decided recently that I would like to find the clown and anemone if possible a new home. Not sure how thats gonna happen but Id like to get rid of the anemone due to the extra toxins they add to a tank, especially since I dont have a skimmer yet!! And the Clown is too big for his britches.. likes to toss things around and demands ample space for his anemone. Just tired of working around a fish.

Oh and after seeing your thread on the custom media basket with the Larger bottom chambers, Im quite interested. Do you think you could PM me with prices and shipping to Seattle? That is if you are planning on making more!

Tank has really come a ways since starting.
Really like the anemone. Hope it does well for you.
I tried a couple times in the past to keep them but they always ended up moving behind rock or getting sucked into pumps. Might try another some day.
Love that clown. Really beautiful.
Sweet looking tank.

Thanks I def appreciate it! I feel like it has come a long way too...which surprises me constantly considering I have zero extra money. I dont know how I scrounge up the coin sometimes!! Such is the life of a poor art student living on loans.. Also very thankful to a friend of my father's for donating quite a few nice hunks of coral and the nem to me. I am planning on heading back to Oregon in 2 weeks for my break from school. I'm gonna take a frag of Fire & Ice, frag of Eagle eyes, and a tile of GSP back with me to give to my dads friend. Although the quantity is not quite on par with what I received from him, Im sure he will be more than happy to add a handful of new colonies to his 150 gal!

Also for any of you on a low budget like myself, yet have frequent traffic passing by the tank, I highly recommend setting up a "reef fund" Jar or something of that nature. I have a 1 gal glass Tabasco jug I scored a few years back as a server, that works perfectly for this! In just about 2 months I've generated about $55 in extra cash just from having this next to my tank. Some is donations from friends, but anytime I see coins lying about or have some jingle in my pocket....straight into the jar it goes. You'd be amazed at how fast peoples "throw away" change can build up. On the downside I live with 2 other poor art students, and I noticed some of the coins and a few of bills have gone missing. Added a new Anti-Ahole sign to the jar and removed the bulk of the $$ to a safer location. Loooong story short this money will be used purely for a coralmorphalogic purchase, vividaquariums, or maybe a trip out to saltwater city after it bulks up for another month or 2!!

Pic Update!
Got a little bored tonight..frags are getting some great growth and size already so I thought I'd snap a few pics.



..and figured out the ID on these gorgeous little buggers, Radioactive Dragon Eyes


Shot of all 3 flavors

Fresh Cut today




Under the Moonlights




Mother Colonies



Rare full body shot of "Squirrel"


And Extremely Rare shot of "Lola" as she held still while examining the Chunk of GSP I glued to the back wall

poke...