Nano tank from Australia

[brucen89]

I am in the early stages of setting up a new nano tank, the dimensions are roughly 45cm x 26cm x 27c.

 

These are just some early pics as my internet is currently down and I am posting these from a friends computer.

 

The tank with old LED lighting

 

 

New light fitting; not complete.

 

 

Tank with power compact lighting.

 

 

New coral I picked up for the tank!

 

 

More pics and info to come!

[GTi]

Looks nice so far. Love the wall art, too!

[supernip]

its a beautiful mask

[Baker]

i like the size of that tank

 

It seems those LED lights are spreading like wild fire in the hobby. I only worry i have about them is the intensity for more light needy corals. I would love to have one if i could deny my concerns.

 

keep the pics coming!

[asting]

Why'd you ditch the led for PC? seems like you're going backwards.

[brucen89]

Thanks for the comments guys!

 

The LED on the tank was an AquaMedic 12W PAR globe which IMO gave horrible spotlighting; this resulted in the tank having a blue light ring in the centre surrounded by a yellow ring with the outer edges of the tank being totally without adequate light. Although the PC light is slightly outdated technology it gives good cover and will suffice for the LPS and softies I intend to keep. Two blue LED strips will also be fitted into the unit to increase the colour "pop" of the corals, these will be wired separately and will double as moonlights when the PC bulb goes off.

 

Filtration for the tank will be provided by the live rock as well as a Hydor 1600 l/h Koralia. An AquaC nano remora will be fitted onto the back to remove organics and the Red Sea NO3-PO4-X liquid carbon will be dosed to reduce nitrates and phosphates.

 

No more pics as of yet but I'm hoping to have the light unit complete by the end of the week so I'll try and post some more pics when that's all finished!

 

Thanks for reading, Bruce

[FireCorals]

Nooooooooo, not PC's, LOL. That looks like a fire hazard!

 

Maybe you should of gone with two PAR 38's rather than one with the right combination of colors. LED fa life!

 

Btw, what brand tank is that? Do you have anything under it? Like foam or the alike?

[asting]

You would suggest two par38's over an 8gal tank

[FireCorals]

You would suggest two par38's over an 8gal tank

 

Lol, well his complaint was spot lighting, either two or better optics.

 

Two wouldn't be over kill in a 8g, especially for frag tank if he plans on having SPS.

[brucen89]

Being a student I'm try to keep costs down and I actually don't mind the look of the power compact, combined with the blue LED's it gives a pretty nice light!

[brucen89]

Managed to get onto a computer so its update time!

 

Dedicated my Sunday afternoon to getting it filled so its currently got about 2kg of cured base rock with 1kg of FRESH live rock! I'm quite happy with the aquascaping as it is now although theres a few pieces of rubble in there which will need to be removed to make room for corals, but at the moment I'll leave them in there to add to the cycle and to further seed my base rock.

 

Here is the tank 5 minutes after the rock went in, still a bit cloudy with dirty glass.

 

 

And here are the water tests as of Monday morning...coming along nicely

 

 

I'm expecting the skimmer to arrive either today or tomorrow and I've also ordered an Aquaclear 50 powerhead to power it.

I've also been rethinking my lighting, at work at the moment we have cheap 30cm LED strips in blue and white so I was thinking of using 8 or so of them (4 x W, 4 x B ) which should give enough light to keep the corals happy!

 

Lunch break is up so I best get back to it! Cheers

[castiel]

Nice!

 

Where in Aus are you based?

[brucen89]

Thanks! I'm from Sydney, its good to see a fellow Aussie on the boards!

 

Tank has come a long way since I last updated this thread but I'm still without internet for the next week so I'll hold off on the updates until I'm online. We all know a journal without pictures is totally boring

[brucen89]

I'm finally back online so I figured it was time to update Nano-reefs slowest ever tank journal!

 

The tank has come quite a way since this post was last updated; thanks to daily 50% water changes, several cups of live sand being added and daily additions of Seachem stability I managed to cycle the tank in about 14 days

I ended up scrapping the power compact light after seeing the Ecoxotic Panorama PRO LED strips on a friends tank. I opted for a 12k/445nm Panorama strip accompanied by a 445nm stunner strip, this should give a fairly balanced light which will allow me to run the all blue stunner strip using the 4 way splitter cable with switches.

 

Tank livestock currently includes a green lobophyllia, red acan, 2 GSP frags, a small torch coral and a fire goby! I've also got a Tiger Blenny (Ecsenius tigris) waiting to go in the tank, this little guy is so awesome and is super active eating anything that is thrown at him!

 

About 4 days ago I also started using the Red Sea NO3-PO4-X at 0.66mL daily to help control NO3 and PO4 levels, although I'm not sure if I'll continue its use as the corals started to not open up fully, this may be something to do with the poor temporary lighting currently over the tank. I've temporarily discontinued its use, I might try it again once the new lights are on to see if that was the problem.

 

Here are some rather average quality photos taken from my mobile which show the tank as of 5 minutes ago. You can see in the closeup picture a horrible slime layer on the water surface; I've been removing this every day using paper towel and aiming the powerhead at the surface but I can't seem to get rid of it! Any suggestions?

 

Front of the tank, used some white shelving strips and a white shelf to support the lights.

 

Closeup FTS

 

Thanks for reading

[Kazooie]

I have a mask just like that, and used to have one that was 3 feet tall.

[brucen89]

Woke up this morning to find the front pane of my tank on the other side of the room; during the night the silicone joints must've just come apart and the whole thing just gave way

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

April Fools!

 

The tank is coming along well now with several new corals having been added, the tank now contains the following;

• 2 frags of GSP
  
• Green tipped torch
  
• Duncans frag
  
• Red lordhowensis
  
• Eagle eye zoas
  
• Other green zoas
  
• Blastomussa wellsi
  
• Blastomussa merletti
  
• Ricordea
  
• Green Clavularia
  
• Small purple acro frag
  

 

It doesn't look like that much in the pictures but it's a nice enough start!

 

The cheap LED's have now been replaced by a pair of Ecoxotic Panorama Pro strips, one 12k/445nm and one all blue 445nm. These lights pack a serious punch and I'll be adding a dimmer within the next few weeks to try and encourage a bluer light.

 

Took these pictures tonight, I have real trouble taking colour accurate photos under blue LED lighting,it messes with the colours quite badly. I've tried to adjust them in Photoshop to be as true to real life as I can possibly get them.

 

FTS

 

Torch

 

Ric

 

GSP

 

Duncs

 

Blastos

 

Acan and Zoas

 

Top

 

Hope you enjoyed those, any constructive criticism welcome

[Mr. Microscope]

Beautiful scape! Love that yuma and acans. Looks like you have a good start.

 

One concern is your rocks. They look pretty dense. Do you think you're getting enough biological filtration?

[brucen89]

Thanks! The acans have a really nice bright red colour in real life which I unfortunately can't seem to capture...

 

You're right about the rocks too; I recently had to remove a large bright green Lobo which wasn't getting enough flow and was starting to lose it's colour a bit. I'm already in the planning stages of getting a slightly larger tank which will hopefully allow me to open up the scape a bit.