Nanolutionary's 30g Long Shallow - Retired - Lost to Cyanobacteria

[nanolutionary]

Just ordered a pack of live copepods along with some copepod feed from reefphyto in order to setup a home culturing space in the fish room - I want to get my mandarin eating live as well as frozen food.

[JR!]

what a stunning tank. well done.

[Nstocks]

Just ordered a pack of live copepods along with some copepod feed from reefphyto in order to setup a home culturing space in the fish room - I want to get my mandarin eating live as well as frozen food.

 

I did exactly the same thing yesterday! It looks easy enough to do and doesn't need too much attention. I'm preparing for my Mandarin, once I set up the tank and using copepods takes out the worry that it might starve to death.

[nanolutionary]

what a stunning tank. well done.

 

Thank you JR!

 

 

I did exactly the same thing yesterday! It looks easy enough to do and doesn't need too much attention. I'm preparing for my Mandarin, once I set up the tank and using copepods takes out the worry that it might starve to death.

 

My mandarin has lost a little weight i think so i'm eager to get loads of copepods in there - will be feeding him as much frozen food as possible this weekend to fatten him up.

[Lynton]

Thanks Lynton, how's your tank coming along?

It's coming along slowly lol... Just ordered my mp10, gota 2 week wait for my stand now.. Just gota get plumbing, skimmer, Couple pieces of Rock (as just having individual Islands)and sand... The list is endless but it's getting smaller ?

 

Loving the new light set up btw looks great

[nanolutionary]

Looking forward to seeing your tank progress - great dimensions!

 

I've added a shrimp goby pair and another three Nassarius snails over the last couple of days also reduced my lighting as i think i was close to bleaching a new frag, zoas are starting to open up fully again, albeit only for a few hours at the beginning of the lighting schedule, perhaps the reduced lighting will encourage them out more.

[Lynton]

It's taking its time but I will get there (eventually) I know what I want and how I want it to look it's just funds stopping play. Good things come to those who wait ?...

 

Stand should be here next week so then I can get on and sort the plumbing out and then comes the all important water test ?..

 

Loving the new light bracket btw.. Wats nxt if anything?

[nanolutionary]

Last thing to do is flesh out the rock with corals!

 

Can't wait to get these off the windowsill of my office and into the culturing tank at home!

 

[Nstocks]

Mine came in the mail today too! These things are so tiny, can't wait to have a huge population to keep my Mandy nice and fat

[cruzH20polo]

this is one awesome tank!

 

can't wait to see how it develops

[Nstocks]

nanolutionary; I've been researching how many copepods are needed to keep a Mandarin health and if the Mandarin eats every 5 seconds, it will consume around 8,000 per day! (12 hour eating cycle)

 

I set up my pods today; 400ml pods in a 5L container. Apparently it will take a few months to have a good, sustainable source for the Mandarin to survive. It's not clear how quickly they reproduce however.

 

Just wanted to share that with you.

[nanolutionary]

Thanks or the info on the Copepods just as my culture appears to be picking up speed I came down this morning to find my Mandarin had jumped! After all that target feeding to keep it fat!

 

Still going to feed the copepods to the other fish and also to help breakdown uneaten food.

[Nstocks]

Oh no, sorry to hear that . Are you planning on getting another and covering the tank? I didn't know they were jumpers - perhaps look into a mesh cover myself.

[nanolutionary]

Yeah I was really surprised too, going to get a cover if I ever get another one.

[saltfishD]

Awesome tank love the clean look of the plumbing. Do you have any problems with water levels and not surface skimming any way you can take more in depth photos or explain your plumbing setup maybe a video so I can understand what's happening. I love the idea of not having an overflow box they take away from the look of a tank. Great job

[Odyssey350kc]

Does this tank ever get algae or do you just clean it before every pic. It looks brand new every time i see it.

[nanolutionary]

Thanks guys the plumbing is a simple herbie overflow minus the overflow box with grills placed

over each of the pipes. Will endeavour to get up some more pics and a video to demonstrate.

 

I have algae which builds up on the glass so every four-seven days I scrape the glass with a razor/sponge and every week or fortnight I will completely turn over the sand bed before a water change.

 

Another way I have found to reduce algae

Is to feed little and often so that the fish eat every single piece of food.

[Nstocks]

How are the copepods doing? I've seen a small increase with mine but no the "explosion" claimed after 7 days.

[nanolutionary]

Awesome tank love the clean look of the plumbing. Do you have any problems with water levels and not surface skimming any way you can take more in depth photos or explain your plumbing setup maybe a video so I can understand what's happening. I love the idea of not having an overflow box they take away from the look of a tank. Great job

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zv2-skpUyRo

 

Hope this helps

[nanolutionary]

Photo update time aka - the weekend!

 

I've moved quite a bit around, the brain coral and clam are now on the sand bed.

 

Moved some of the sps around and some softies too.

 

Got a new hi-fin goby and red-banded shrimp pair which are doing nicely although whenever I move the rock slightly when taking a frag off to reposition I worry I am crushing the shrimp!

 

[nanolutionary]

How are the copepods doing? I've seen a small increase with mine but no the "explosion" claimed after 7 days.

 

yeah mine have been taking longer than i expected to reproduce so i added a heater and noticed a lot more movement from them since then, I'm hoping this will - as I've read it does - increase the reproduction cycle also.

[Nstocks]

 

yeah mine have been taking longer than i expected to reproduce so i added a heater and noticed a lot more movement from them since then, I'm hoping this will - as I've read it does - increase the reproduction cycle also.

Good idea. I have a spare section in my sump I could use since it's will be surrounded by heat anyway - just need a light. I would think the water needs changing more often though?

[nanolutionary]

Yeah i'm going to go with a 50% water change every two weeks i think although i'm a little concerned about how to get out all the detritus and not half my pod population!

 

Added a new porcelain crab over the weekend to replace the one i lost in the oxygen crash, it's feeding and opens its fans but is still a little nervous keeps putting away it's filter fans whenever I'm near the tank, looking forward to it forgiving me for dropping it three times as it crawled startlingly quickly out of the two nets I had!

[Nstocks]

Yep that's what I find hard to do - scoop out the waste but keep the pods. I actually think my population have diminished! I'm looking at re-stocking with more water volume + heat + different food. I'm asking around to see why it's apparently important that the pods are in shallow water... I highly doubt the stores have dozens of shallow vessels.

 

Oxygen crash?

[Nstocks]

Just thought I'd share more info regarding the copepod culture. I contacted the company I purchased mine from explaining the slow growth in population and they came back telling me:

 

1.025 is too high salinity. They ship them in 1.020 and apparently should be acclimated when added to the aquarium just like corals and fish! (even more time and effort!)

Heater is a bad idea - copepods only go dormant believe 5C

Rotifers can help stabilise the copepod culture as they will eat the rotifers, however too many can pollute the water.

 

Hmmm. Perhaps this isn't as straightforward as I first thought. Not sure if adding a refugium with algae would be any better.