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Stones & Roses


jball1125

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Hey NRers!

 

I am no newbie in the aquarium world, however, this will be my first shot at a salt water tank. I kept Discus for a few years but had to get out of the hobby because of a big move. Now after months of research I am ready to give the reef tanks a shot.

 

Equipment:

12 gallon rimless aquarium

AC70 filter w/ filter floss & 50W Theo Heater inside

AI Sol Blue w/ controller

MP10WES

Avast ATO (coming soon)

RKL or Apex Jr (coming soon)

 

Live Stock:

Misbar Clown

10 lps of Fiji Rock

Live sand

Snails

Hammer Coral

Variety of zoas/palys

 

Tank on 7/17/12

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Tank on 7/18/12... Some live rock, sand and water added from the LFS

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Anyway, I will be adding more live rock soon and will bring the CUC when the tank is ready.

 

For those of you interested in an easy way to hang the AI sol, here is what I did.

 

I wanted to have the option of moving the lights up or down as needed so I chose cables.

 

First thing I did was buy some heavy duty L brackets to use as the support for a shelf. Then I bought a 12" X 24" piece of Melamine from home depot and screwed it on to the top of the brackets to make my shelf.

 

Then I replaced the Screws the SOl came with, with some 3/16" screws with loops at the end. I added the same screws to the bottom of the shelf and simply looped the wire through the holes. A little bit of leveling and precise measuring and your good to go.

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well done. where did you find that tank at?

 

Thanks. I bought the tank used years ago, I had it as a FW shrimp planted tank. I believe the owner told me it was an ADA tank but I dont remember to be honest and I dont see any logos on it. It came with a nicer lid but it broke a whiles back so I cut one up out of plexi.

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Thanks. I bought the tank used years ago, I had it as a FW shrimp planted tank. I believe the owner told me it was an ADA tank but I dont remember to be honest and I dont see any logos on it. It came with a nicer lid but it broke a whiles back so I cut one up out of plexi.

 

LOL thanks for asking JR, bc I was wondering the same thing!

 

Didn't think ADA made a 12gal that looked like that...will have to go peruse the sight. Love the look of that tank. :D

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LOL thanks for asking JR, bc I was wondering the same thing!

 

Didn't think ADA made a 12gal that looked like that...will have to go peruse the sight. Love the look of that tank. :D

 

If they were indeed the makers of the tank, I dont think they are still making it. I have searched the site and dont see any tanks of this dimension. I am going to message my buddy and see if he remembers.

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I believe I just saw my first signs of life crawling on the glass of my tank. After some research I believe the worm is called a Dorvilleidae. Very exciting stuff!

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what powerhead you gonna run?

 

The AC70 seems to be providing a crap load of flow but I do plan on adding either a tunze nano or an mp10 in the future. I am going to compare them at my lfs and see which one I like more. I know that the mp10 is a better system but this tank is a couple of feet away from my bed and I want to keep the noise down as much as possible.

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Cool I will look into those. Would you recommend getting the smart wave box even if I am going with a controller? Also do the koralia nanos make the "clicking" noise when turned on and off?

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Cool I will look into those. Would you recommend getting the smart wave box even if I am going with a controller? Also do the koralia nanos make the "clicking" noise when turned on and off?

 

I have a couple of those Koralia Nanos and one of them makes a clicking sound on start up sometimes. It's intermittent but when it's clicking it's definitely audible.

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Thanks xmai77, ill keep that in mind when it comes time to purchase a power head.

 

Here is more life! I also saw a crab but the lights were off and it was hard to snap a pic.

 

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Nano sapiens

The brittle stars are a nice addition to the CUC (Clean up Crew). The crab...that could go either way. There are a great many species, but these two are very common. If you see that it's a brownish hairy looking crab, it's probably a Gorilla crab and you should remove it. If it's a smooth green and seems to pick on your algae, its probably an Emerald crab and they are usually reef safe (except possibly with very small fishes). If you can't ID it, just keep an eye on it to see what likes to eat.

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The brittle stars are a nice addition to the CUC (Clean up Crew). The crab...that could go either way. There are a great many species, but these two are very common. If you see that it's a brownish hairy looking crab, it's probably a Gorilla crab and you should remove it. If it's a smooth green and seems to pick on your algae, its probably an Emerald crab and they are usually reef safe (except possibly with very small fishes). If you can't ID it, just keep an eye on it to see what likes to eat.

 

Thanks for the advice, I havent seen much of the crab, I will try and identify him next time I see him.

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Ok guys question time. The live rock that I picked up is great in that it is full of life, however, it lacks in "aquascapability" if you know what I mean. I want to do my actual aquascape with some reefsaver rock and then remove the live rock once all is cycled. What I plan to do is have all the rock (live and reefsaver) in the tank until everything is cycled, then slowly remove one piece of live rock a week until I have nothing but reefsaver left. Will this work? Is there another way you would recommend doing it?

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Nano sapiens
Ok guys question time. The live rock that I picked up is great in that it is full of life, however, it lacks in "aquascapability" if you know what I mean. I want to do my actual aquascape with some reefsaver rock and then remove the live rock once all is cycled. What I plan to do is have all the rock (live and reefsaver) in the tank until everything is cycled, then slowly remove one piece of live rock a week until I have nothing but reefsaver left. Will this work? Is there another way you would recommend doing it?

 

Yes, this should work as long as you remove the LR gradually. Personally, I'd wait at least 2 weeks between LR piece removal.

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Yes, this should work as long as you remove the LR gradually. Personally, I'd wait at least 2 weeks between LR piece removal.

 

Ok great, I will wait 2 weeks between removal. I might break off some smaller pieces and place them in the back behind the scape.

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Nano sapiens
Ok great, I will wait 2 weeks between removal. I might break off some smaller pieces and place them in the back behind the scape.

 

LR mini-boulders can work, but you'll need to watch for sediment buildup on the chamber bottom and remove frequently. When I had 'em, I put them in a plastic produce mesh bag so that I could easily lift them all at once for easy cleaning in the chamber.

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TheDrunkenClam

I like the setup but I dunno about an mp10 in a 12g plus the AC70. Might just be me but that seems a bit overkill. To each his own though.

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LR mini-boulders can work, but you'll need to watch for sediment buildup on the chamber bottom and remove frequently. When I had 'em, I put them in a plastic produce mesh bag so that I could easily lift them all at once for easy cleaning in the chamber.

 

Do you mean for keeping in the filter? I plan on putting it on the sand bed behind the scape.

 

I like the setup but I dunno about an mp10 in a 12g plus the AC70. Might just be me but that seems a bit overkill. To each his own though.

 

Never had an MP10 so I dont know how much flow it can add. I do understand that the speed is adjustable, do you think on its lowest setting it will still be too much?

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Nano sapiens
Do you mean for keeping in the filter? I plan on putting it on the sand bed behind the scape.

 

My bad, I see you are using a hang-on filter (assumed you had a 'fuge').

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Never had an MP10 so I dont know how much flow it can add. I do understand that the speed is adjustable, do you think on its lowest setting it will still be too much?

the lowest setting is like 210gph i think. my tank is about 23 gallons and i have mine almost all the way up. so a mp10 would be just fine in there.

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TheDrunkenClam
the lowest setting is like 210gph i think. my tank is about 23 gallons and i have mine almost all the way up. so a mp10 would be just fine in there.

 

So you have almost double the volume of water that his tank has...if you really want to invest $230'ish into a state of the art pump only to never bring it up past its lowest setting by all means pull the trigger but seems like a waste to me.

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My bad, I see you are using a hang-on filter (assumed you had a 'fuge').

 

No worries, I wanted to do a sump but one of the main objectives in this build is to keep noise down, most sumps are usually very noisy. -_-

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